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WHAT AMERICA DID 




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WHAT AMERICA DID 

A Record of Achievement in the 
Prosecution of the War 



BY 

FLORENCE FINCH KELLY 




NEW YORK 

E. P. BUTTON & COMPANY 

681 FIFPH AVENUE 



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COPTBIGHT, 1919, 
BY E. P. BUTTON & COMPANY 



All Rights Reserved 



Printed in the United States of America 

JUL io idlij 
©aA529252 



PREFACE ' 

My purpose in this book has been to condense into 
a brief account just those things that the ordinary 
man or woman wants to know about how we prepared 
for and waged our share in the world war. I have 
tried to picture the large outlines of achievement, to 
present the important facts, and to show how it was 
all inspired and rushed forward by the flaming spirit 
of the people. Volumes will be required, and will of 
course be written, to tell comprehensively and in de- 
tail the complete story of America's many-sided effort 
in the prosecution of the war. But I have sought, 
rather, to make such a book as would meet the needs 
of the every-day reader by disregarding details and 
weaving into the panorama of our war adventure only 
the essential facts of each phase of war effort and the 
spirit by which it was all unceasingly animated. 

In such a volume, it seemed to me, there was no 
place for account of the controversies that have raged 
over almost every step of progress, nor for mention 
of criticisms or investigations or even of the mistakes 
that delayed by a few weeks or a few months the 
reaching of the peak of achievement in this or that 
particular. All of them, doubtless, will be chronicled 
in those many volumes that will tell the story of 
America's participation in the war comprehensively 
and in detail. Otherwise, they will all be forgotten 
in six months. It is achievement that counts, and 



vi PEEFACE 

this book aims only to be a record of things that were 
done. 

But it is in no boastful spirit and with no vain- 
glorious purpose that ''What America Did" is pre-. 
sented. There is no one of the millions who shared in 
that doing but knows and is glad to say that beside 
what Britain, or Prance, or Italy did or Belgium suf- 
fered America can only stand with bent head and 
reverent heart. It is much to be desired that a 
similar record, presenting outlines and essential facts 
within a space possible for the reading of the average 
busy person, of the achievements and sacrifices of 
each of these nations should be prepared for our own 
and for coming generations. For the sum total of 
their testimony would so utterly disprove the old, old 
lie that a democracy can not be efficient and so sum- 
marily cast it into outer darkness that men would 
never again say it or believe it as long as time lasts. 
If this little volume is privileged to do its share 
toward proving that ''the highest and best form of 
efficiency is the spontaneous cooperation of a free 
people ' ' I shall feel it an honor to have done the work 
of assembling and presenting its evidence. 

To those many officials and temporary assistants of 
the Government — they are far too many to mention 
separately — who have given me their cordial and 
painstaking cooperation in my effort to make all the 
facts and figures and statements of this work accurate 
and authoritative I wish to acknowledge my very 
great indebtedness. Without their constant and most 
courteous help the book would have been impossible. 

Florence Finch Kelly. 
New York City, 
May, 1919. 



CONTENTS 

FAGB 

Preface ^ 

Foreword: Entering the War xiii 

PART ONE 
THE FIGHTING FORCES 



SECTION I. ON LAND 

CHAFTSB 

I. The Making of the Army 

II. Housing the Soldiers and Their Supplies 

III. Feeding and Equipping the Army 

IV. Creating a Munitions Industry 
V. Caring for the Wounded 

VI. The Welfare of the Soldiers 

VII. Maintaining the Army in France 

VIII. At the Front 



3 

20 
24 
34 
48 
59 
70 
83 



SECTION II. BY SEA 

IX. Expansion in the Navy 95 

X. Operating an Ocean Ferry ..... 105 

XI. Working with the Allied Navies . . . 113 

XII. The Navy on Land 120 

XIII. The Wings of the Navy 127 

XIV. The Training op the Reserves .... 133 

SECTION III. IN THE AIR 

XV. Creating a New Branch of Warfare . . 139 

XVI. Providing the Means 143 

vii 



viii CONTENTS 

CHAFTEB PAGE 

XVII. Training the Men 151 

XVIII. The Balloon Corps 160 

XIX. Flying in France 163 

XX. American Contributions 167 

PART TWO 
THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

XXI. Financing the War 173 

XXII. The Bridge of Boats 184 

XXIII. Organizing the Nation 198 

XXIV. Informing the Public 206 

XXV. War-time Control op Trade and Industry 220 

XXVI. "The Greatest Mother in the World". 228 

XXVII. Feeding the Nations 236 

XXVIII. The Management of Fuel 250 

-^.J^XIK. The Spirit op the People 260 

XXX. Labor and the War 273 

XXXI. Big-Brothering the Fighting Forces . . 283 

XXXII. Running the Railroads 301 

XXXIII. The Work op Women for the War . . 311 

XXXIV. Fighting the Underground Enemy . . . 327 
XXXV. At the Heart of the Nation .... 338 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Troop Transport Leaving New York for France Frontispiece 



FACING 
PAGE 



Cantonment Three Months after Construction was Begun 16 

Training a Machine Gun Company 16 

Interior of a Cantonment Library 64i 

Dock in a French Port Developed by the United States . 72 

Mobile Kitchen Back of the Front Lines 88 

An American Big Gun in France 88 

Troop Ships Entering Brest 105 

Mine Barrage across the North Sea 112 

Naval Gun on Railway Mount 128 

Airplane Ambulance 

American Flying Field in France 1^2 

A Shipyard in the Making 1^2 

The Fifty Shipways of the Same Yard 192 

Wounded Men in a Hospital Weaving Rugs .... 232 

Unloading Wheat at a French Port 248 

In a Red Triangle Hut in the Battle Zone 288 

A Pleasant Evening in a Hostess House 296 

Salvation Army Lassies at the Front 296 

Woman's Land Army Members Sorting Potatoes ... 312 

Training Camp of Woman's Land Army 312 

View from Washington Monument, August, 1917 ... 340 

Same View One Year Later ^^^ 



IX 



WHAT AMERICA DID 



i 



FOREWORD: ENTERING THE WAR 

WHEN the United States entered the war, 
April 6th, 1917, she had an army, including 
all the forces of the Regular Army, the National 
Guard and the Reserve Corps, totaling 202,510 men 
and 9,524 officers, a navy not large but well pre- 
pared, and the nucleus of an aeronautical section 
so small and undeveloped that it was negligible. Be- 
hind these fighting forces that, except the navy, were 
insignificant in comparison with the vast numbers 
of men swaying back and forth across the battlefields 
of Europe was a nation that ever since its birth had 
held the profound conviction, a fundamental of its 
political creed, that this country should never allow 
itself to be drawn into the quarrels of Europe. 

Generation after generation had watched trans- 
atlantic wars blaze up and go their bloody way and 
had seen their flames fed by racial hates and jealous- 
ies, commercial greed, desire of territory, and dynas- 
tic and personal ambitions. And each successive gen- 
eration had detested more deeply the whole foul crew 
of those motives and had been more determined that 
America should have no concern in the struggles they 
inspired. No one who does not understand how 
deeply rooted was this conviction in the political 
beliefs and ideals, the traditions, the very life of the 
American people can appreciate what it meant to 
them to plunge into the war. It demanded no less 

xiii 



xiv THE FIGHTING FORCES 

than a revolution in their methods of thought and in 
their attitude toward the rest of the world. The 
Monroe Doctrine, moreover, which for nearly a cen- 
tury had been almost as fundamental in our political 
life as the Constitution itself, made our abstention 
from interference in Europe a point of honor. For 
in its declaration that Europe must keep its hands 
off the western hemisphere was the implied and recog- 
nized obligation that the United States must keep its 
fingers out of Europe. 

Until within a few months of our entrance into 
the war the vast majority of our people, probably 
no less than nine-tenths of those who were reading 
and thinking about it, saw in it nothing more than 
one of those recurring European quarrels, such as 
their fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers 
had watched from this side the Atlantic with grow- 
ing determination that this country should not be 
entangled in their strife. All that vast majority 
believed profoundly that the United States should 
hold aloof from this war for the same reasons that 
it had kept out of the previous bloody struggles. The 
American people can scarcely be blamed that they 
did not for a long time perceive the real j?ause of 
the war — ^the desire of the German Emperor and his 
people to win world dominion and establish, a Ger- 
man autocracy over the conquered peoples. For no 
nation, and very few individuals, even among the 
near neighbors of Germany, at first realized that 
this was the goal of the Kaiser and his Government. 
Some of those nations had now and then apprehended 
danger, but only each one for itself, but upon the 
fingers of one hand could be counted the statesmen 
and publicists of Europe who perceived the inten- 



FOREWORD: ENTERING THE WAR xv 

tion of world conquest, until the field-gray legions 
had heen started upon the adventure. And those 
few who had declared such a conviction concerning 
German purpose had had their trouble for their 
pains. For no one had heeded their warning. Slowly, 
as evidence accumulated that convicted Germany out 
of her own mouth and was surveyed in the light of 
the event to which it all pointed, did the governments 
and peoples that were being attacked come to a reali- 
zation of the truth. 

The American people were still longer in under- 
standing the full significance of the purpose with 
which Germany launched the war. For their knowl- 
edge that through many centuries one after another 
of the European powers had striven through blood 
and devastation and agony to gain dominance over 
the others made them for a long time heedless of 
the meaning of the accumulating evidence and led 
them, in all honesty and conscientiousness, to absolve 
themselves of any responsibility or obligation. Ger- 
man propaganda of the most insidious and plausible 
sort, its sources well concealed, was busy everywhere 
and, although it had no success in changing the di- 
rection of the spontaneous sympathies of the people, 
it did aid in preventing them from discerning for 
many months the^real cause and purpose of the war. 

Moreover, that any nation in the twentieth century 
should lust for world dominion and should set out to 
gain it seemed to the average American mind so 
impossible, so insane a purpose that it was loath to 
believe the truth. More and more evidence had to 
be accumulated and pressed home, more and more 
proof of the satanic methods by which the Germans 
were seeking to gain both their immediate and their 



xvi THE FIGHTING FORCES 

ultimate ends had to be shown the American people 
before they could realize the full truth and the full 
significance of the German purpose. Not until that 
purpose ceased to stagger their belief did the sense 
of obligation begin to stir their spirits. 

Hardly less universal and profound than the po- 
litical conviction that this nation should stay out 
of European entanglements and let Europe settle 
her own quarrels in her own way was the moral and 
intellectual conviction that war is a wasteful and 
wicked means of bringing about any desired result. 
For more than a generation this belief had been grow- 
ing and striking deep root in the minds and hearts 
of the American people. The nation that sprang to 
arms in April, 1917, was a nation that loathed war 
from the bottom of its heart. 

So powerful and so universal were these convic- 
tions, that the country should be kept aloof from 
European dissensions and that war should be con- 
sidered only as a last resort in a righteous cause, 
that no leader could have put the country whole- 
heartedly into the war until the masses of the peo- 
ple were convinced that the moment had come when 
they must enter it. And they were not, in their 
millions, thus convinced until the events near the 
end of 1916 and early in 1917 had shown them 
the path they must take. Then it was — and until 

,^hen it would not have been — a united and deter- 
mined country that took up the cross of war and 

.faced the ascent of Calvary — ^how completely and 
closely united and how sternly determined the pages 
of this book will try to show. 



PAET ONE 
THE FIGHTING FORCES 



SECTION I. ON LAND. 
CHAPTER I 

THE MAKING OF THE ARMY 

THE United States sprang into the greatest war 
the world has ever known, a war in which men 
and machines and resources were being consumed in 
enormous quantities, with an army numbering, all 
told, only 212,000. The first necessity was to create, 
train and equip an army that would, at the earliest 
possible moment, number millions of men and thou- 
sands of officers. American sentiment had always 
been strongly opposed to the principle of compulsory 
military service and the only attempt the country 
had ever made to use the draft system, during the 
Civil War, had caused dissatisfaction, disturbance 
and riot in civil life and in its military results had 
been practically a failure. Through many days of 
discussion in Congress and throughout the country 
the question was threshed out, while enlistments to 
the number of over 800,000 were swelling the ranks of 
the Regular Army, National Guard and Reserve Corps 
organizations. In the end, there was general agree- 
ment that only the draft system could furnish the 
enormous numbers of men required and draw them 

3 



4 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

from civil life with democratic justice and with due 
regard to social and economic interests. 

As a large number of foreign bom citizens had 
come here to escape the compulsory military service 
of their native countries, there were many grave fears 
of the result and it was even expected that in cen- 
ters of foreign population there would be riotous 
\demonstrations of protest. But those who were thus 
ipprehensive had not rightly estimated the intelli- 
gence, the democracy and the Americanism of the 
whole citizenship of the country, foreign as well as 
native born. 

The success of the Selective Service Law, enacted 
by Congress on May 18, 1917, was as spectacular as 
it was complete. The entire machinery of registra- 
tion, compilation and report was organized and made 
ready for operation in the eighteen days following 
the enactment of the law and was wholly manned 
by volunteer service from civil life. On June 5th, in 
a single day, without disturbance or protest any- 
where, the entire male population of the country be- 
tween the ages of twenty-one and thirty, inclusive, 
went to the registration booths and registered for 
military service, and practically all the returns were 
in Washington within twenty-four hours. Two sub- 
sequent registrations of young men who had reached 
the age of twenty-one after June 5th brought the 
number of registrants up to a little more than 10,- 
000,000 men. 

On September 12th, 1918, occurred the registra- 
tion under the extended age limits of eighteen to 
forty-five when over 13,000,000 names were added to 
the list. Thus in a year and a half of war America 
listed and classified as to physical fitness and occu- 



THE MAKING OF THE ARMY 5 

pational and domestic status her full available power 
of 23,700,000 men. Out of the first great registra- 
tion and the two small ones supplementing it and 
from the Regular Army and the National Guard there 
had been sent overseas at the signing of the armi- 
stice, November 11th, 1918, a little more than 2,000,- 
000 men and there were in the United States, ready 
for transportation to France, 1,600,000. The Ameri- 
can Army totaled at that time 3,665,000. A few of 
those who had gone were in Italy, Russia, or elsewhere, 
but nearly all of them were in France, trained, 
equipped and either on the fighting line, in support- 
ing divisions, or waiting in the rear ready for the 
front. Those in the American training camps were 
being transported to France at the rate of from 200,- 
000 to 300,000 per month and would all have been 
overseas by early spring of 1919. The work of classi- 
fying the registrants of September, 1918, and of mak- 
ing the selections for military service was already 
under way and the flow of these men into the train- 
ing camps had begun. The plans were all ready for 
operation for calling into military service 3,000,000 
more men from this registration, for training them 
in the American camps two or three months and then 
sending them to France for a final training period 
of six or eight weeks. If the war had continued until 
the next summer, as it was then universally believed 
it would, the United States would have had ready 
for service at the front, within two years of its dec- 
laration of war, an army of between 6,000,000 and 
7,000,000 men, taken from civilian life, trained, 
equipped and transported across the Atlantic Ocean 
within that time. 

The mechanism by which this army was gathered, 



6 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

examined, selected, classified and sent to training 
camps worked as smoothly, as efficiently and as 
swiftly as if the country had been trained for a 
century in martial methods. The quotas to be fur- 
nished by states, counties and smaller districts were 
apportioned and local boards were appointed to have 
charge of the task of calling the selected men, ex- 
amining and classifying them and sending to the 
training camps those finally chosen as physically fit 
for the service and able to serve without injury to 
dependents or to essential industry. 

Registration also had been carried on under these 
local boards, each registrant being numbered in order. 
The draft call was made by means of a lottery draw- 
ing in Washington where each number that was drawn 
summoned all the men of the same registration num- 
ber in all of the 4,500 local boards throughout the 
country. The local boards called in the men whose 
numbers were chosen, examined them as to physical 
condition, considered their claims to exemption, if 
such were made, on the ground of being the neces- 
sary support of dependents or of being engaged in 
an essential industry, decided for or against them 
and certified their names to the district board, which 
acted as a board of review for local boards, as ex- 
empted or held for service. If approved for service 
by the district board, the local board inducted them 
into the service and sent them to a cantonment or 
camp to begin their military training. Each of these 
4,500 local boards was officered by three men, one 
of whom had to be a physician. All of them were 
civilians who worked practically without pay, until, 
after some months, a small allowance was made for 
their remuneration. They carried through the ardu- 



THE MAKING OF THE ARMY 7 

ous work, frequently entailing many hours per day, 
in addition to their regular business or professional 
affairs, which had to be much neglected meanwhile, 
in order that they might offer this important service 
to their country at the moment of need. The draft 
organization, besides these 13,500 local board mem- 
bers, included over 1,000 district board members, 
medical, legal and industrial advisers, clerks, Gov- 
ernment appeal agents, and others amounting, all 
told, to a compact, nation-wide body of over 190,000. 

The democratic ideals of America have never had 
a more searching trial or a more triumphant vindica- 
tion than was afforded by the swift and efficient mak- 
ing of this Army of Freedom. Columbia stretched 
out a summoning finger, saying, ' * I need you ! ' ' and 
there came to her service millionaire's son and Chi- 
nese laundryman, descendant of generations of 
Americans and immigrant of a day, farmer, banker, 
merchant, clerk, country school teacher, university 
professor, lawyer, physician, truck driver, yacht 
owner, down-and-outer, social favorite — from village 
and country and town and city they came, repre- 
senting every occupation, every social grade, every 
economic condition in the republic. On the demo- 
cratic level of service to the country they gathered 
in the barracks and without a whimper or a word 
of protest the millionaire's son cleaned out stables, 
the young man reared in luxury washed his own 
mess kit and served on the kitchen police, and all 
of them worked at their training and their drill as 
hard as day laborers from dawn till dark. 

Fourteen tribes of American Indians were repre- 
sented among the soldiers of the National Army, 
as the forces formed from the Selective Service were 



8 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

called for more than a year, to distinguish them 
from the Regular Army and the National Guards. 
Then all three were merged into the single organiza- 
tion of the United States Army. Among the most 
efficient soldiers were several regiments of negroes. 
Every civilized nation on the face of the globe, every 
language, and every important dialect were repre- 
sented in the ranks of the soldiers of freedom who 
carried the Stars and Stripes on the battle fields of 
France. Through the office of the base censor of the 
American Expeditionary Forces passed letters in 
forty-nine languages. Chinese, Syrian and Dane, 
Persian and Irishman, Japanese and Italian, Latin 
American and Swede, vied with the New Englander, 
the Kentuckian, the Texan and the Kansan in loyalty 
to the United States, in enthusiasm for our ideals 
and willingness to defend them with their lives. 
In the September registration men of fifty-two dif- 
ferent tongues were listed in New York City. In the 
first draft men were called and accepted who claimed 
birth in twenty-two separately listed countries, while 
a contingent from Central and South America was 
not credited in the official report to the separate 
nations they represented and nearly two thousand 
men from scattered and small countries were lumped 
together under the designation of *' Sundries. ' ' But 
all of them zealously fought for America. 

A great many of these foreign-born men already 
spoke English. And the education of those who did 
not began as soon as they were inducted into the 
army and was continued along with their military 
training. In every cantonment to which came men 
who did not understand English schools were estab- 
lished in which they were taught to speak, read and 



THE MAKING OF THE ARMY 9 

write the language. All the training and all the life 
around them were in English and this constant asso- 
ciation and the daily lessons soon made most of the 
men fairly proficient. 

Along with the training in English went instruc- 
tion in American ideals, in the reasons why America 
was in the war and in what the war meant to them 
individually. The aim was to give to these foreign- 
born men the kind of training in patriotism and in 
democratic ideals, condensed into a few weeks, that 
the American gets by birthright and surroundings. 
Many, varied and ingenious were the ways by which 
this was done. There were short talks on war news, 
on American principles of government, on why 
America was in the war, on why it was a war for 
freedom, and similar topics. The special days and 
the heroes of nations that have their own traditions 
of revolt against tyranny were celebrated by "na- 
tional nights" to which came all the sons of that 
nation in the camp and as many others as could 
crowd into the auditorium. There were music and 
speeches and national songs and the hymns of the 
Allies and in all the talking the speakers would link 
up American democracy, its mission in the world and 
the reasons why America was in the war with the 
traditions of freedom, the heroes of liberty and the 
sacrifices for democracy and justice of the nation 
whose celebration was being held. Pamphlets and 
leaflets, written by men of their own nationality, m 
English usually, but in their own tongue for those 
who could not yet read English, which explained the 
causes of the war, the aims of the combatants and 
America's motives and outlined American history m 
a simple and readable way, were circulated among 



10 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

the men. In a word, these foreign-born soldiers-in- 
the-making were educated and broadened and so 
imbued with democratic principles and American 
ideals that in spirit they rapidly became good Ameri- 
cans, even if they elected to continue citizens of 
their native land. 

But all who wished could be naturalized during 
their military training. In every cantonment was 
a court of naturalization and by a special law it 
had been made possible to shorten the time ordi- 
narily needed for this process. Any man who was 
going forth to fight the battles of civilization in the 
American army could become an American citizen, 
even if he had not previously declared his intention, 
while he was being trained. In one day at one of 
the cantonments men of fifty-six nationalities were 
naturalized. At this camp sessions were held from 
eight till five o'clock and were often continued until 
midnight, so many were there who wished to become 
citizens. The majority of the aliens in the selective 
service did so choose and the great bulk of the for- 
eign-born part of the huge army that was ferried 
across the Atlantic had acquired American citizen- 
ship. Aliens who did not wish to serve could, and 
some thousands did, claim, and were granted, exemp- 
tion on that ground. 

Now and then Columbia's summoning finger 
brought to the training camp a slacker, or a religious 
or a conscientious objector. Patient and careful in- 
quiry was given to every case and no effort was spared 
to make sure that each was receiving exact justice. 
The official report of the Provost Marshal General 
for the first draft reckoned that out of the more than 
3,000,000 called for service no more than 150,000 of 



THE MAKING OP THE ARMY 11 

those who failed to appear on time were not ac- 
counted for by enlistment, transference or death. 
The reports of the local boards showed that the bulk 
of this residue was composed of aliens who had 
left this country to enlist in their own armies. Out 
of the remainder of 50,000 a great many of the fail- 
ures to report were due to the ignorance or heedless- 
ness of workingmen who had moved, between regis- 
tration and the call, from one job to another in a 
different locality. 

The exemption usually given to religious objec- 
tors was extended, after a few months, to include 
those who based their objections to sharing in war- 
fare upon grounds of conscience even if they were 
not members of a religious organization. Out of the 
3,600,000 men inducted into the service a little less 
than 4,000 were accepted or recognized as conscien- 
tious objectors. A large number of these were as- 
signed to work on farm or industrial furloughs. Some 
entered non-combatant service and a few were allowed 
to join the Friends' Reconstruction Unit. Several 
hundred refused any service whatever and were sent 
to prison. In the training camps the conscientious 
objectors were segregated and placed in the charge of 
an army officer who was often able by tact and per- 
suasion to influence them to a different point of 
view. Some swallowed their objections very soon, 
took up the work of training more or less sullenly, 
and presently, seeing a better light and feeling the 
influence of the patriotism and enthusiasm surging 
round about them, became as good soldiers of Uncle 
Sam as any of their comrades. The problem of the 
slacker and the objector was a small one in the mak- 
ing of the great army that was sent overseas, but it 



12 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

was a vexatious one for the honest-tiearted men who 
had charge of it and who took infinite pains to dis- 
pense even-handed justice in every case. ''My com- 
pany," said the captain in one large cantonment 
under whose command were grouped the slackers, the 
religious ohjectors and the protesters for conscience's 
sake, ''is the most interesting one in the camp — 
and the most trying." 

Development battalions were established in nearly 
all the cantonments and did a good work in raising 
the efficiency of some of the men of the army by 
helping them to reach better physical condition. To 
these battalions were sent men who developed minor 
physical defects and the men sometimes received from 
the local boards who fell short of the physical st.".nd- 
ards set by the army. Medical treatment, courses of 
physical training and, if necessary, surgical opera- 
tions brought many of them to so much better bodily 
condition that they could undertake limited service. 
Many were sent to the forests of the Northwest as 
part of the regiment that did most necessary work 
in helping to get out spruce lumber for airplane 
construction. Others were prepared for clerical and 
semi-civilian work in the army, thus releasing for 
active service those who had had it in charge. A 
goodly number improved so much under treatment 
that they were enabled to undertake active army serv- 
ice. All told, about 250,000 men passed through the 
development battalions, of whom nearly half were 
made fit for duty in either the first, second or third 
class. Educational work was also carried on in the 
battalions and many who were either illiterate or 
had had very little schooling received elementary in- 
struction from former school teachers, of whom there 



THE MAKING OF THE ARMY 13 

were many in the ranks. Short talks on the duties 
of citizenship, phases of American history, public 
questions, and the causes and progress of the war and 
the encouragement of discussion broadened the out- 
look and stimulated the minds of the men. 

The necessity of organizing and training a huge 
army in a few months made equally necessary a revo- 
lution in some army methods, a revolution that was 
brought about by the Committee -on the Classification 
of Personnel appointed early in the war. For most 
of its work, which constantly broadened and became 
more and more important, it had no precedents, for, 
except a little experimenting in the British army, 
nothing like it had ever been attempted before. In 
scope and function and purpose it was one of those 
bold innovations upon army traditions and methods 
which the Secretary of War introduced into the train- 
ing of this new army of democracy, with results so 
successful and important that when the complete 
story of them is known it will be seen that they put 
a new spirit into military training and were in no 
small measure responsible for the splendid record 
made by the American army. 

The Director of the Committee was a civilian, a 
university professor and specialist in psychology who 
had won distinction by his ability to give that science 
practical and fruitful application in daily life. Its 
work was so varied and so well developed in all its 
phases that it is possible to give here only the barest 
resume of its achievements. By the methods it de- 
vised all the men who entered a cantonment, after 
they had passed their physical examinations, under- 
went psychological tests to determine the speed and 
accuracy of their mental actions, the quality of their 



14 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

native intelligence and the extent of its development. 
Then they passed on to interviewers who examined 
and classified them according to their education and 
training, their occupations and degree of skill. After- 
ward came trade tests to discover whether or not the 
men had truly reported their occupations and ability. 

These trade tests and the methods of their applica- 
tion, as finally developed, were the result of much 
work and investigation by the Committee that had 
brought in the services of psychological experts, em- 
ployment experts, statisticians and others. Their 
purpose was to procure a dependable record of the 
special ability of every soldier who possessed any 
kind of skill that would serve any one of the army's 
varied needs. Every army unit must have special- 
ists of several kinds and in an army that had to be 
built up at high speed it was necessary to find these 
specialists among its numbers. Bitter experience de- 
veloped the fact, very soon, that the account of them- 
selves which the men gave in answer to the questions 
of the interviewers frequently could not be depended 
on and the trade tests, which were of three kinds, 
oral, picture and performance, were devised to meet 
this necessity quickly and easily. 

As the soldier passed through these various ex- 
aminations his interviewers entered upon his record 
card his physical and mental qualifications, his trade 
or profession and his degree of proficiency. Thus was 
tabulated, for the first time in the history of any 
army in any nation, the exact physical, mental and 
industrial ability of every soldier in the American 
army. These records were kept by the unit to which 
the soldier was assigned, and followed him if he was 
changed to another, for the information of the offi- 



THE MAKING OF THE ARMY 15 

cers under whom he served. A glance at such a 
card gave to an officer the knowledge he should have 
concerning the aptitudes, the abilities and the char- 
acter of any of his men whom he might wish to 
assign to some particular service. If skilled men 
were wanted in any of the scores of special occupa- 
tions which the modern army demands they could 
quickly and easily be brought together, with the sure 
knowledge that they would be able to do what was 
expected of them. One of the greatest of the many 
problems facing those who had to make an army of 
millions of men out of raw civilians in a few months 
was to be sure of getting the right man for the right 
place, and the Committee on Classification of Per- 
sonnel, an innovation in the making of armies, solved 
it. 

Similar tests helped to determine the qualifications 
of officers and enabled their superiors to judge their 
fitness for any specified duty with accuracy. The 
Personnel work was conducted by men chosen for it 
because of their aptitude and their experience in 
civil life and they were then trained especially for it 
in schools for that purpose instituted at army camps. 

These individual records and the service records 
of the entire army, both privates and officers, with 
the history of each unit, are to be preserved among 
the archives of the Government. 

This great army, growing at the rate of a hundred 
thousand per month, nearly the whole of it com- 
posed of civilians who had been entirely lacking in 
military knowledge and training, without interest in 
martial affairs and, in large part, averse to the prin- 
ciple of warfare as a means of settling human dis- 
putes, had to be trained in the quickest possible time 



16 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

for participation in the greatest, the most shocking 
and the most scientific war of all history. The 
Regular Army and the National Guard together 
could furnish no more than 9,500 officers, a mere 
handful compared with the number needed. Begin- 
ning in May, 1917, four series of Officers' Training 
Camps were held, each series lasting three months, at 
which men studied and drilled with grueling inten- 
sity twelve hours a day, fitting themselves for the 
work of training the Selective Service men who be- 
gan to be gathered into the cantonments early in 
September. At these camps were trained, all told, 
80,000 officers, from second lieutenants to colonels, al- 
though the higher commissions were granted only at 
the first two series because of the urgent need, at first, 
for officers of all grades. There were also several 
special training schools, one for colored officers of 
the line, and others in Porto Rico, Hawaii and the 
Philippines. Several thousand officers were trained 
and graduated also from Reserve Officers' Training 
Corps units established at over a hundred colleges 
and universities. 

French and British officers and British non-coms 
were sent by their governments to the United States 
to aid by giving practical training out of their own 
experience and their assistance was of great value. 
After our own men began to go overseas and have 
training and experience at the front many of them 
were brought back for the higher importance of the 
instruction they could give. 

From the training camp schools of intensive study 
and drill many thousands of young men were assigned 
for work at the special officers ' training camps where 




View Across One End of a Cantonment Three Months 
After its Construction was Begun 




Training a Machine Gun Company 



THE MAKING OF THE ARMY 17 

officers were prepared for the specialized duties of 
the Signal, Engineer and Quartermasters Corps, and 
for coast and field artillery and machine gun work. 
Here also there were long hours and steady, close 
application. From these special training camps 60,- 
000 officers were graduated. A shortened and intensi- 
fied course at West Point greatly increased the num- 
ber of its graduates ready for officers' service with 
the army. 

In the autumn of 1918 five hundred colleges and 
universities became a part of the great program of 
the War Department. Each of these institutions was 
transformed into a martial training school and near- 
ly all the men students of the whole five hundred, 
about 170,000 in all, joined the Students' Army 
Training Corps, thus becoming members of the United 
States Army. But while these youths spent much 
time on drill and training they also were expected to 
keep up their other studies. For this was a scien- 
tific war and demanded for its prosecution men skilled 
in many branches of learning. The young men were 
being trained to be not only soldiers but also engi- 
neers, chemists, physicians, geologists, physicists, and 
specialists in many other lines. From their ranks 
the most promising were selected and sent to mili- 
tary camps for six weeks of a course of rigid and 
intensive military training in some special line of 
military service. West Point graduates, army officers 
with experience on the other side, officers loaned by 
our Allies, had charge of the military supervision 
and work of this great body of students. And dur- 
ing the summer of 1918 7,000 members of university 
and college faculties attended special training camps 



18 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

to prepare themselves to assist in this work. The 
school year's training was expected to yield, by the 
spring of 1919, from 60,000 to 70,000 officers. 

Thus, by training, selection, rigid test, more in- 
tensive training, the hardest of hard work, and still 
more training under men who had proved their worth 
in battle and had brought back dearly won knowl- 
edge of present day methods of warfare, the need for 
more, and more, and ever more officers for the rapidly 
expanding army was met. And in the camps and can- 
tonments the daily drill, drill, drill, and again drill, 
drill, drill, of a million and a half of soldiers was 
constantly carried on. 

Early in the course of all these activities it was 
perceived that it would be advisable to reconstruct 
the entire plan of organization of the army in order 
to make the size and number of its fighting units 
correspond with those of the English and French 
armies and thus simplify the brigading of our troops 
with the others and the exchanging of units in the 
front lines. This reorganization was carried out, as 
was also the merging together into one body of the 
three organizations, Regular Army, National Guard 
and National Army, in the midst of all the high- 
speeded preparations for war. 

Another revolution in army methods, the result 
of the imperious necessity for the highest efficiency 
possible to obtain, whether from soldier or officer, 
individual or army, was the sweeping away of the 
old system of promotion by seniority. All officers 
below the rank of Brigadier-General, under these new 
regulations, had to undergo the passing of judgment 
upon them every three months by their immediate 



THE MAKING OF THE ARMY 19 

superiors. They were rated according to their phys- 
ical and personal qualities, capacity for leadership, 
intelligence, and value to the service, and promo- 
tion depended upon how well they passed these tests. 



CHAPTER II 

HOUSING THE SOLDIERS AND THEIR SUPPLIES 

WHILE the machinery was being devised and set 
in motion for forming a great army by means 
of the selective draft and officers were being schooled 
for its training, immense camps had to be provided 
in which hundreds of thousands of men could be 
trained, warehouses had to be built in which to 
gather and store the enormous amounts of supplies 
necessary for their maintenance and equipment, huge 
plants had to be constructed for the making of cer- 
tain kinds of ordnance, and included in the vast 
scheme of construction work, all of it necessary al- 
most at once, were also flying fields, embarkation 
depots, port and terminal facilities. 

The work of building the cantonments was, alone, 
a very great engineering achievement. It called for 
an expenditure within three months of $150,000,000, 
more than three times that of the largest year's 
work on the Panama Canal, and it demanded the 
construction of nearly a score of goodly sized cities, 
to be ready for occupancy by tEie following Sep- 
tember. For this huge job, when war was declared, 
there was one colonel with four assistants and a 
few draughtsmen, clerks and stenographers. Around 
that lone colonel there was built up, almost over 
night, by telegraph and telephone, the organization 

20 



HOUSING THE SOLDIERS 21 

of the Government's Construction Division, that car- 
ried through successfully the whole vast program. 
For the building of the cantonments, engineers, town 
planners and civilians having expert knowledge came 
to its assistance, investigating possible sites and 
studying their water supply, transportation facili- 
ties and availability of construction materials. Con- 
tracts were let for sixteen National Army canton- 
ments and as many National Guard camps. These 
were all signed between the fifteenth and twenty- 
seventh of June and in three months some of them 
were in use, while in six months all the work had 
been finished, plus many additions and betterments. 

The building of each meant the creation of a city 
that would house from forty to eighty thousand peo- 
ple. The ground surface had to be prepared, hills 
leveled, valleys filled, trees uprooted, brush cleared 
away and roads built. Then began the construction 
of barracks for the men, ofiicers' and nurses' quar- 
ters, hospitals, repair shops, and all the other build- 
ings necessary for the varied activities of the camp, 
amounting to more than 1,400 separate structures in 
each cantonment. Sewage systems and steam heating 
and electric lighting plants were installed. An ample 
water supply, with plenty of shower baths, was pro- 
vided, allowing fifty gallons per day per capita, 
which is eighty per cent more than the average al- 
lowance in European army camps. Every care was 
used to assure the purity of the water. When taken 
from rivers it was filtered and sterilized. 

The total cost of the thirty-two cantonments and 
camps was $179,607,497. Additions and betterments 
during the next six months added $22,000,000. Every 
camp had its garbage incinerator, coffee roasting 



22 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

plant, theater, repair shop and other buildings that 
added to the comfort and morale of the men and 
the efficiency of the camp's work. Such care was 
taken in the sanitation of the training camps and 
in the assuring of a pure supply of water — some- 
times making necessary the draining of surround- 
ing areas — that the reports of the Surgeon-General 
showed the practical elimination of water-borne dis- 
eases among the troops in training. 

Almost as rapid as the work on the cantonments 
and camps was that which had to provide hospitals, 
flying fields with all their many buildings for varied 
uses, huge storehouses and port and terminal facili- 
ties. At half a dozen of the Atlantic Coast cities 
port terminals with warehouses and wharves had 
been completed or were nearing completion at the 
end of hostilities unprecedented in size and com- 
pleteness of equipment in our own or any other 
country. One storage warehouse provided 3,800,000 
feet of storage space and another, for ordnance sup- 
plies, had 4,000,000 square feet of space into which 
were fitted seventy-five miles of trackage and 9,000 
lineal feet of wharf frontage. 

For the production and storage of certain kinds of 
ordnance great plants had to be built at the highest 
speed and, for the most part, because of their dan- 
gerous possibilities, in out of the way places where 
the problem was complicated by the necessity of 
providing housing not only for the workers who 
would operate the plant but also for those engaged 
in its construction. An instance of one of these, 
and there were many others, was a smokeless pow- 
der plant the building of which in eight months 
transformed farm land along a riverside to a busy 



HOUSINa THE SOLDIERS 23 

town, containing 3,500 people, into which had gone 
100,000,000 feet of lumber. It had rows of bar- 
racks for single men, blocks of cottages, other 
blocks of better residences, huge storage houses, 
laboratories, manufactories. A pumping and puri- 
fication plant built among the first of the structures 
took from the river 90,000,000 gallons of water per 
day and made it fit for use. While the plant was 
being erected from 200 to 400 cars of freight were 
unloaded daily. Construction projects of this class, 
including plants for the production of gas, nitrate, 
picric acid, powder and high explosives, presented 
complicated problems and their cost ran from $15,- 
000,000 to $50,000,000 each. And all were erected 
and in operation within a few months from the day 
of the first work upon them. 

Eighteen months of war saw the construction of 
nearly five hundred important projects of these vari- 
ous kinds at a cost of over $750,000,000, all of them 
rushed to completion at the greatest possible speed. 



CHAPTER III 

FEEDING AND EQUIPPING THE ARMY 

THE Quartermasters Corps, which formerly total- 
ed 500 officers and 5,000 enlisted men, with its 
facilities and routine adapted to the feeding and 
equipping of an army of 127,000 men, had at once 
not only to meet the needs of the vastly expanding 
forces and to keep abreast of the actual growth and 
immediate demands of the army as it came into being, 
but it had also to anticipate and prepare to meet 
what would be the much greater needs of a much 
larger army six or eight months in advance. 

While a million and a half of men were being ex- 
amined, classified and called to service and more 
than thirty cantonments and camps were being built 
in which to house and train them and other con- 
struction projects were being rushed forward, the 
Quartermasters Corps had to provide their uniforms 
and clothing and accumulate in storage the food for 
their subsistence. At the same time, it had to make 
sure that it could meet the constantly enlarging needs 
of the coming months when the army would grow 
like a Jonah's gourd with every passing week. Pro- 
duction had to be stimulated and turned aside from 
its usual channels and enormous quantities of ma- 
terial used for new purposes. It was an emergency 
that required the practical making over of the meth- 

24 



FEEDINa AND EQUIPPING THE ARMY 25 

ods and purposes of American industry and in the 
process the Quartermasters Corps had to be both 
the directing and supervising agency and the channel 
of communication between industry and the army. 

A soldier's outfit of clothing for a year cost $65.51 
and numbered twenty-three different items of a dozen 
different branches of manufacturing industry. The 
initial equipment for one man's shoes alone cost 
$14.25. During the sixteen months from April 1st, 
1917, to the end of July, 1918, the army was supplied, 
among other things, with 27,000,000 pairs of shoes, 
field and marching ; 29,800,000 pairs of breeches, light 
and heavy; 19,800,000 coats, both wool and cotton; 
192,200,000 shirts, undershirts and drawers, for both 
summer and winter wear; 156,600,000 pairs of stock- 
ings of cotton and light and heavy weight wool ; and 
21,000,000 blankets. And by the end of July the 
Corps already was taking measures to provide the 
clothing necessary during the coming year for the 
army of 5,000,000 men for which the War Depart- 
ment was preparing. That meant it must have on 
hand whenever and wherever they should be re- 
quired, among many other things, all of which at the 
signing of the armistice it had either ready or in 
sight, 17,000,000 blankets, 28,000,000 woolen breeches, 
34,000,000 woolen drawers, 8,000,000 overcoats, 33,- 
000,000 pairs of shoes, 110,000,000 pairs of stockings, 
9,000,000 overseas caps, 25,000,000 flannel shirts. 

Ten great storage depots were maintained in as 
many different regions of the country where huge 
quantities of equipment were kept and from which 
the camps in that district were supplied. Other stor- 
age plants had to be kept full at the ports of em- 
barkation from which the troops bound for over- 



26 THE FIGHTINa FORCES 

seas service were outfitted. On the other side of the 
Atlantic stock depots were maintained with complete 
equipment for ninety days' supply for all the troops, 
numbering finally over 2,000,000, that were sent over- 
seas. As an indication of the enormous quantities of 
clothing which had to be sent across the Atlantic, on 
the first of July, 1918, there were, along with similar 
large quantities of other supplies, on docks in the 
United States ready for shipment, 2,700,000 blankets, 
840,000 pairs of spiral puttees, 7,500,000 pairs of 
stockings, 1,400,000 pairs of field shoes, 203,000 pairs 
of hip rubber boots, 713,000 overseas caps, 697,000 
woolen breeches, 709,000 overcoats. 

A force of inspectors kept the output of the manu- 
facturing contractors constantly under rigorous 
watch and whenever supplies were not up to the speci- 
fied standard they were rejected. Because it is of 
the first importance that a soldier's feet be always 
in the best condition, great care was taken in prop- 
erly fitting each individual. A scientific means was 
devised of measuring the soldier's foot when he re- 
ceived his first pair of shoes and of testing the fit 
so that he could be sure of entire comfort in his foot- 
gear, no matter what the length of the hikes he 
should take. And after being perfectly fitted the 
first time, with each successive pair — each year in 
the service in the United States he received three 
pairs and four pairs for each year abroad — ^he had 
only to ask for another exactly similar. 

The American army has always been a well fed 
army. In the pre-war days, when it was the smallest 
army maintained by any large state, experts from 
other nations, versed in the quantity and quality of 
army rations, said that the American was the best 



FEEDING AND EQUIPPING THE ARMY 27 

fed of all armies. And this was still true during 
the great war, though its numbers leaped on by magic 
strides. Whether in training at home, in camp on 
the other side, or on the battle front, the' American 
soldier had better food and more of it than the sol- 
dier of any other nation. For instance, extra rations 
from American supplies were issued to American sol- 
diers when brigaded with those of any other army, in 
addition to those supplied by the commissariat of 
the army with which they were working. No experi- 
ments were made upon the doughboy in the matter of 
food and experts saw to it that his ration was agree- 
able to the taste, well-balanced and nutritious. That 
it was good was proved by the fact that the average 
soldier gained from ten to twelve pounds in weight 
after entering the service'. 

Food experts were constantly busy devising the 
best means of preserving the food until it reached 
the army kitchens, whether in the home camps or 
behind the lines at the front. A part of their mis- 
sion was also to eliminate waste. Coffee roasting 
plants were installed in all the large camps at home 
and overseas, for the double purpose of giving the 
soldier better coffee — coffee made within twenty-four 
hours after the bean had been roasted — and to pre- 
vent the waste, about two cents on each pound, which 
results when the roasted coffee is kept for long periods 
and so deteriorates in strength and quality. A school 
was established to which men were sent to learn the 
art of roasting coffee properly and after they became 
expert they were detailed to the different camps at 
home and abroad to take charge of the coffee roasting 
plants. Lemon drops were found to be a desirable 
part of the army ration, as they supply needed fac- 



28 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

tors of food, help to quench thirst and are much 
enjoyed by the soldiers. To make sure that the drops 

\ supplied should be of the best quality a formula was 
prepared calling for pure granulated sugar and the 
best quality of fruit and the candy makers taking 
the contract were held strictly to that standard. The 

^same care was taken to see that manufacturers of 
chocolate candies should use the best cocoa beans in 
making them. The candy ration for troops on over- 
seas service was a half pound every ten days for each 
soldier, and a great deal of this was made, toward the 
end of the war, in factories which the Quartermasters 
Corps established in France. 

The American soldier's daily ration consisted of 
twenty-seven articles of food, weighing altogether 
about four and a half pounds and costing about 50 
cents per man, and it had to be ready for him regu- 
larly and promptly every day, wherever he might 
be. No second grade material of any kind was 
bought and constant inspection of raw materials, of 
processes and places, of preparation and of army 
kitchens kept the food up to the standard demanded. 
It was bought in enormous quantities and, in order 
to stabilize prices in all sections of the country, part 
of the supplies was secured through the Food Ad- 
ministration and the remainder by means of a sys- 
tem of zone buying. During the ten months from 
September 1st, 1917, to the end of June, 1918, 225,- 
000,000 pounds of sugar were required and from the 
1917 crop of vegetables and fruits the army bought 
and used 75,000,000 cans of tomatoes and 20,000,000 
pounds of prunes. From the listed amounts of thirty 
articles of food demanded for the subsistence for one 
year of an army of 3,000,000 men, the approximate 



FEEDING AND EQUIPPING THE ARMY 29 

size of the American army before the September draft, 
the following items are taken. They will give an 
idea of the size of the task which the Quartermasters 
Corps undertook in the feeding of our soldiers at 
home and abroad: Fresh beef, 478,515,000 pounds; 
bacon, 48,000,000 pounds; potatoes, 782,925,000 
pounds; jam, 7,665,000 cans; flour, 915,000,000 
pounds; coffee, 61,320,000 pounds; tea, 7,665,000 
pounds; canned pork and beans, 4,000,000 cases; 
canned tomatoes, 6,000,000 cases; evaporated milk, 
2,992,500 cases; butter, 15,330,000 pounds. More 
than six thousand different packers supplied the 
canned vegetables bought for the army in the sum- 
mer of 1918, approximately 300,000,000 cans, enough 
to girdle the earth if the cans were laid in line, end 
to end. 

The necessity of conserving shipping space led to 
the use of dehydrated vegetables, of which the Quar- 
termasters Corps in the summer of 1918 contracted 
for 16,000,000 pounds. The soldiers of the Ameri- 
man Expeditionary Force received a ration of 16 
ounces of pure wheat flour per day each. Noijffihe^ 
saving substitute was used there, for the reason that 
field bakers must work swiftly and can not afford 
to experiment with flour mixtures. At the train- 
ing camps in the United States kitchens were sta- 
tionary and bakers definitely located and here the 
prescribed amount of substitutes was used, with satis- 
factory results. The Subsistence Division of the 
Corps worked out a special reserve ration for use 
in the trenches and under first line conditions in 
France. It was carried in containers proof against 
rats, water and poisoning in gas attacks. Schools 
were established for army cooks and bakers, so that 



30 THE FiaHTINQ FORCES 

only skilled and experienced men should serve the 
food from army kitchens. 

But the Quartermasters Corps, while it was feed- 
ing and clothing the army, did not forget to be thrifty 
and it instituted and developed a remarkable system 
of conservation and reclamation that eliminated waste- 
fulness and turned waste products into wealth. It 
reduced army waste of food stuffs, including bread, 
cooked meat and bones, to three-fifths of a pound per 
day per man, a figure much lower than the average 
waste of the civilian population in the cities of the 
United States. 

Every camp, both in the United States and over- 
seas, had its repair shops where every article of cloth- 
ing — hats, shoes, overcoats, stockings, leggins, 
breeches, coats, gloves — that could be made to give 
farther service was put into shape. In one month in 
the summer of 1918 more than a million articles 
of clothing and equipment were repaired. Fats were 
extracted from garbage, manure was sold, waste ma- 
terials of various sorts were sold or turned over to 
one or another army organization that could find use 
for them. A school was established with a three 
months* course at which several hundred men were 
constantly in training to take charge of the repair, 
dry cleaning and laundry shops of the army and of 
the prevention of waste in the handling of food in 
the camps and the reclamation of values from gar- 
bage and waste materials. 

Out of the importance of this work of reclama- 
tion and conservation came the formation of the Field 
Salvage Service. The members of this Service, after 
training at a school for this special work, were sent 
overseas to collect, classify and dispose of the wreck- 



FEEDING AND EQUIPPING THE ARMY 31 

age of guns, shells, tools, all the implements of war 
that strew a battlefield after an engagement, and 
which, in former wars, would have been considered of 
no value. The Salvage Service also operated through 
all our lines, from the front trenches back through 
the training camps and lines of communication to 
every base port, collecting worn or damaged articles 
of every sort, and turning them to some kind of use. 
Even empty tin cans were collected and tin and 
solder salvaged. 

The Service had in active operation in France at 
the end of hostilities four depots, twenty shops and 
sixty-six laundries and disinfectors. Of all the items 
it received for renovation and repair it recovered 91 
per cent, and utilized the remaining nine per cent, 
for raw material in repair work. The value of its 
work during the last month of war was estimated at 
over $12,300,000, or more than $4,000,000 per day. 

Under the care of the Quartermasters Corps was 
developed the Motor Truck Service, which later be- 
came a separate Corps — the '*Gas Hounds," as it was 
called both in and out of the army. At the beginning 
of our participation in the war the Corps had only 
3,000 trucks, most of them in bad condition after 
hard service on the Mexican border. During the 
nineteen months of war there were shipped to France 
110,000 vehicles and 15,000 tons of spare parts, and 
in mid-summer of 1918 the Service had 2,700 officers 
and 77,000 men. The Motor Transport Corps became 
of the first importance as a means of transport of 
troops and supplies, both in the United States and 
overseas, but especially so in France. Its work in 
moving men, munitions and supplies to the front was 
of such great consequence that it deserves the credit 



32 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

of having been an important factor in the winning of 
the war. In order to assure the quantity produc- 
tion that was urgently needed designs were stand- 
ardized and all branches of the automotive industry 
united for their manufacture in close cooperation. 
Training camps were established to provide officers 
and men for the operation and maintenance of the 
Service both in the United States and in France and 
training was given also at several immense base re- 
pair shops. The courses varied from two to eight 
weeks and 15,000 men were in training at one time. 

The American army was the best paid of all the 
armies of the contending nations. The private and 
the non-commissioned officer received from two to 
twenty-five times the pay of privates and non-com- 
missioned officers in the British, French, Italian and 
German armies. Except for the grades of Lieutenant- 
General and General in the British forces, the pay of 
the American officers was also considerably greater 
than officers received in any of the other armies. 
The payroll amounted to $40,000,000 per month for 
every million of officers and men abroad, and was al- 
most as much more for the forces at home. The rapid 
and tremendous expansion of the payroll, coming at 
the same time that the Quartermasters Corps was, by 
necessity, greatly expanding and reorganizing its per- 
sonnel and was undertaking the huge tasks of pro- 
viding food, clothing and equipment for the army, 
somewhat demoralized the system of payment for the 
first year of war effort. But an individual pay card 
system was devised which simplified the vexatious 
problem. 

The personnel of the Quartermasters Corps ex- 
panded from five hundred officers and 5,000 enlisted 



FEEDING AND EQUIPPING THE ARMY 33 

men to 9,000 officers, 150,000 enlisted men and 75,000 
civilian employees, while the entire Corps was re- 
organized, several new divisions created and their 
work specialized, and finally, so enormous and varied 
were the tasks which came under its supervision that 
several of them were transferred to other offices of the 
War Department or new corps were developed to 
take charge of them. The total expenditures and 
obligations of the Quartermasters Corps for the war 
amounted to about $7,000,000,000. 



CHAPTER IV 

CREATING A MUNITIONS INDUSTRY 

SIMULTANEOUSLY with the work of making the 
new, huge army, of housing and training it, meet- 
ing its immediate and preparing to meet its future 
needs of clothing and equipment, the War Depart- 
ment had to provide, against the time in a very few 
months when these troops would he at the front, the 
munitions with which it would fights — ^heavy and light 
artillery, machine guns, rifles, automatic pistols, gren- 
ades, bomhs, gas shells, cartridges, every death-deal- 
ing instrument made necessary by modern scientific 
warfare. And it had not even the facilities with 
which to make most of them. The few existing plants 
had to be enlarged, new ones erected, and even the 
tools for the making of some of the munitions had to 
be manufactured before work could begin upon the 
arms themselves. For many years the whole nation 
had set its face against increase in the army or in 
the providing of supplies for it in excess of peace 
time needs. The commercial manufacture of muni- 
tions was repugnant to the spirit of American in- 
dustry, which had never engaged in it to more than 
a very slight extent. The making of ordnance is a 
highly specialized form of manufacturing industry 
and when we entered the war there were in the United 
States only two large private concerns and six Gov- 

34 



CREATING A MUNITIONS INDUSTRY 35 

ernment arsenals which were versed iq its special 
processes. In the Ordnance Division of the War De- 
partment there were only 97 commissioned officers 
whose training had given them the knowledge neces- 
sary to supervise and direct ordnance manufacture. 

Conference with_our_co-belligerents resulted in a 
scheme of cooperation in the making of munitions 
which pooled the resources of all the associated na- 
tions in raw materials, manufacturing facilities, labor 
and finished products in order to make more rapid 
the production by each and all of them of all death- 
dealing weapons. 

America laid out at once a great and thorough- 
going munitions program and the War Department 
plunged into it and speeded it at a furious pace. New 
designs were made and tested, new plants constructed 
and a big organization for the carrying on of the work 
was built up so rapidly that office forces doubled and 
trebled in a few weeks and sometimes even within a 
few days. In the Ordnance Division the officers ' per- 
sonnel increased within a year from 225 to 4,600 and 
the enlisted from a little more than 800 to 47,500. 
Scores of technical, scientific, professional and busi- 
ness men left their private affairs and joined the 
working forces of the War Department to aid in rush- 
ing its munitions program. Upward of 16,000 con- 
tracts were quickly placed that required the working 
up into missiles of death of thousands of tons of raw 
material by hundreds of thousands of workmen. 
When the armistice was signed there were in the 
United States nearly 8,000 manufacturing plants em- 
ploying 4,000,000 persons engaged in the making of 
ordnance. Manufacturing concerns of every imagin- 
able sort converted their plants to the production of 



36 THE FIGHTINa FORCES 

the direct materials of warfare for the use of our 
fighting men. 

A corset factory was using its plant for the making 
of grenade belts. A manufacturer of machinery for 
popping corn was turning out hand grenades instead. 
A fireworks establishment was making bombs. A 
typewriter company was furnishing signal pistols. A 
big radiator works was an important producer of 
shells. Artillery carriages were being made by a 
boiler company, a steam shovel company, and an eleva- 
tor company. These carriages are very complex, each 
one consisting of from three to six thousand pieces, 
exclusive of rivets. So many were needed that, not- 
withstanding all the help from private industry, in 
order to insure the necessary quantity production the 
government built for their manufacture twenty-six 
plants, all of which were in operation in August, 
1918. The intricate and delicate recoil mechanism 
which sewing machine and other companies began 
early to furnish was also made in these immense 
factories. In one industrial district alone, that of 
Pittsburg, not less than 2,000 industrial concerns were 
busy in September, 1918, on munitions work. They 
were employing nearly 200,000 men, with a pay roll of 
$2,000,000 a day, and their war contracts exceeded in 
value $2,500,000,000. In that month this district mo- 
bilized for cooperation to fill an order for prompt de- 
livery of 33,000,000 semi-steel shells. Shell steel was 
then being produced at the rate of 500,000 tons per 
month. 

Sixteen new plants for the forging and machining 
of cannon were built by the Government at a cost of 
$35,000,000. Two siege gun plants and twenty-six 
plants for the making of gun carriages and recoil 



CREATING A MUNITIONS INDUSTRY 37 

mechanism were completed at a cost, altogether, of 
$65,000,000. One of the plants for the making of 
cannon, of which the construction is typical of all, 
was wholly brought into being after our entrance 
into the war. Ground for the factory was broken in 
July, 1917, and in nine months from that date the 
first completed gun was ready for shipment. The de- 
cision early in our participation in the war that our 
artillery equipment should conform in general to the 
standard calibers of our war associates made it neces- 
sary to alter our existing facilities and create new 
ones, but the cooperation it made possible resulted, in 
the end, in a more rapid equipment of our Expedi- 
tionary Forces although it delayed somewhat the be- 
ginning of our production. 

Ordinarily it takes . a considerable time to manu- 
facture artillery, big guns requiring two years and 
lighter ones from six to ten months. We had to 
create new plants, new tools, new processes. But at 
the end of the war we had done all this and had pro- 
duced 5,000 trench guns, 4,900 light and medium guns, 
695 heavy guns and 19 railway guns and mounts — 
more than 10,000 complete artillery units, and a total 
of 30,880 units had been contracted for. Many gun 
forgings and completed guns had been sent to Eng- 
land and Prance and many spare parts had been sup- 
plied to our own Expeditionary Forces. At the sign- 
ing of the armistice an output of about 500 guns a 
month had been reached. Among them were 155 mm. 
howitzers, of which we had reached a sufficient pro- 
duction to exceed our own needs and 600 had been 
sold to France. There were also 7-inch, 14-inch and 
16-inch guns, mortars and howitzers mounted on rail- 
way carriages that could be moved quickly from place 



38 THE FIGHTINa FORCES 

to place. A 75 mm. field gun and an 8-inch howit- 
zer, each self-propelling and mounted on a caterpillar 
tractor that could climb hills and knock down trees, 
were ready to be sent overseas and were the advance 
couriers of a quantity production in these types 
that was already beginning. Several kinds of cater- 
pillar tractors of from two to ten tons were designed, 
produced and put to the serivce of the artillery. 

Machine guns became of more and more importance 
as the war progressed and by the time of the entrance 
of the United States the demand for them was urgent 
and prodigious. Their manufacture in the United 
States was delayed somewhat for the completing and 
testing of the Browning machine gun, in order to se- 
cure a standard gun superior to the older types which 
could be produced in quantity, and the working out 
of plans for its manufacture. It soon proved its su- 
periority in the speed and surety with which it works 
so triumphantly that both the French and British 
governments asked for whatever surplus over its own 
needs the United States could give them. The tools 
for the making of the guns had first to be produced 
and work that would ordinarily have taken a year was 
rushed through in half the time. But within a year 
quantity production of guns had been reached. Of 
machine guns and automatic rifles we produced dur- 
ing nineteen months a total of 181,662, and during 
the months immediately preceding the armistice we 
had reached a monthly production rate more than 
twice that of France and nearly three times that of 
England. The production of heavy Brownings began 
in March, 1918, and by the end of the following Oc- 
tober there had been made of these 39,500 and of light 
Brownings 47,000. 



CREATING A MUNITIONS INDUSTRY 39 

When we entered the war we had only two plants 
capable of making our own rifles, which were of a dif- 
ferent caliber from those of any other nation. One of 
those factories had been shut down and dismantled 
and the other, which had been making rifles continu- 
ously for the United States for over a hundred years, 
was producing only twelve hundred rifles per month. 
The appropriation by Congress for the preceding fiscal 
year had been for rifles and pistols combined only 
$250,000. The work was immediately begun of adapt- 
ing the British Enfield rifle, which was rechambered 
for our cartridges because they are more powerful 
than the British and do not jam. But manufacture 
of this Modified Enfield, Model 1917, was started dur- 
ing the summer of 1917 and over 2,000,000 of them 
had been produced by the end of October, 1918. Dur- 
ing the same time Springfields, which are still used 
for certain purposes, to the number of 844,000, had 
also been manufactured, and the Springfield Armory 
was then producing more rifles in a day than it had 
formerly made in a month. 

To the making of the Modified Enfield rifle go 84 
parts and a total of 164 pieces. These parts were all 
standardized so that any of those made in either of 
the three large plants that manufactured this rifle 
could be used in any other. This made possible the 
rapid rate at which they were turned out. Rigorous 
tests for each part and close inspection of every pro- 
cess, together with the enthusiastic interest of the 
employees, made the number of rejected rifles negli- 
gible. The employees of one concern, of their^own 
inspiration and desire, adopted the slogan of ''one 
million rifles for 1918" after they had subscribed 
$1,000,000 to the third Liberty Loan. This plant, 



40 THE FIGHTINa FORCES 

which had under roof more than thirty-three acres, 
was built in 1915 to manufacture rifles for the Brit- 
ish Government, but soon after our entrance into the 
war signed a contract with the United States. It 
speeded production so rapidly that by mid-summer 
of 1918 it was two months in advance of its expected 
production. 

Automatic pistols proved of so much value at the 
front that General Pershing, as soon as the American 
troops had got well into the fighting, asked for the 
supply to be quadrupled and at once numerous pri- 
vate plants began to manufacture them. One firm 
that had been steadily turning out automatics at the 
rate of 1,500 per day prepared to double its ca- 
pacity when the front line needs were made known. 
Of these and revolvers there had been sent to the front 
600,000 up to the end of September, 1918. Of small 
arms ammunition, including that for machine guns, 
rifles, pistols and revolvers, American factories pro- 
duced a total of about three billion rounds. Monthly 
production had reached a rate of 289,000,000 rounds. 
The armor piercing, tracer and incendiary bullets 
used in the Aircraft Service and in anti-aircraft de- 
fense were developments of the war and had to be 
designed for our own guns and to have special facili- 
ties for their production. 

For the loading of shells four huge government 
plants were constructed with a combined loading ca- 
pacity of more than 5,000,000 shells per month. They 
were larger than any similar plants in the world. 
One of them covered nearly 3,000 acres and was 
built and put into operation, from the breaking of 
the groundj in a little more than six months. For 
the housing of its employees a town was brought into 



CEEATING A MUNITIONS INDUSTRY 41 

existence, within that time, with heating, lighting and 
power plants, police and fire departments, cottages 
for families, dormitories with hot and cold shower 
baths for single men, club-houses, a theater, restau- 
rants, a baseball field and tennis courts. Of high ex- 
plosive shells of all sizes there had been made, at the 
end of September, 1918, 2,500,000; of low explosive 
shells, 3,100,000 ; of shrapnel, 5,800,000 ; and of gren- 
ades of all types 11,870,000. One grenade factory 
had established a pace of a million per month. 

The tank, which was the answer to the machine 
gun, was one of the important new weapons evolved 
by the war, its basic idea having been suggested by 
the American farm caterpillar tractor, from which a 
British engineer worked out the formidable engine 
of battle which it became. Early in our participa- 
tion the American Government began arrangements 
for a considerable tank production and experiments 
and investigations were started to better the design 
of those in use in the Allied armies. A Tank Corps 
was formed to have charge of the recruiting and train- 
ing of the personnel, which numbered thousands of 
well trained men, but design and production re- 
mained in the hands of the Ordnance Department. 
The United States adopted two types, one the smaller 
form used by the French Army, of which 4,000 were 
being made, and the other a modification and im- 
provement of the large tank used by the British, 
with whom a joint program of tank construction was 
being carried out when the armistice was signed. 
Liberty motors furnished motive power, which gave a 
speed of eleven miles per hour, and each carried a 
crew of eleven men, two six-inch guns and several 
machine guns. Some were equipped with wireless. 



42 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

This huge tank, finished examples of which had 
been tested and approved, was forty feet long and 
could climb steep hills, cross trenches and smash 
down large trees. It would have been taken across 
the ocean by hundreds during the winter and great 
companies of them would have plunged into the 
enemy's lines with the resumption of fighting in the 
spring of 1919. The component parts of a goodly 
number had already been made in the United States 
and sent to England for assembly. 

A considerable part of the needs of our co-belliger- 
ents for propellants and explosives was being met in 
the United States when we entered the war and it 
was necessary that we provide our own supplies with- 
out interfering with this production for them. In 
all, four nitrate plants were constructed or started, 
and work upon them was rushed as fast as the sup- 
ply of labor and materials made possible, while exten- 
sions and additions were made to existing facilities. 
i Many scientists and technologists constantly carried 
Ion experimental and research work upon processes 
for the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen and other 
problems connected with the supply of nitrates, and 
always with the aim in view of developing methods 
that would have economic as well as military value. 
The results were such as to make the nation for the 
first time in its history independent of any foreign 
country for the charge in the guns of its soldiers and 
also to bring much nearer the day when the United 
States would be independent of the nitrate deposits in 
foreign lands for its commercial and agricultural 
needs. The toluol for the manufacture of nearly 
all of the TNT used in loading high explosive shells 
was recovered as a by-product in the manufacture of 



CREATING A MUNITIONS INDUSTRY 43 

illuminating gas. At the works of twenty-eight gas 
companies in different parts of the country plants 
were constructed, placed in the charge of experts and 
skilled workers and kept under the closest and most 
vigilant guard for the recovery of this important 
product, of which hundreds of thousands of gallons 
were necessary. As a result of the measures taken 
and rushed through, the supply of propellant and ex- 
plosive material needed by our war associates was not 
interfered with and the loading of American ammu- 
nition was not delayed. 

The hideousness of war was immeasurably increased 
duringThe world conflict by the new uses that were 
made of chemical science. When these new applica- 
tions of the death-dealing possibilities of chemistry 
were first made by the German army the civilized 
world drew back, horrified and appalled. But when 
a barbarous foe makes savage use of science those 
who^are fighting him must, in sheer self-defense, 
meet him_with similar weapons. Therefore, when 
America became a belligerent, averse as all her peo- 
ple were to the use of such weapons, regard for the 
safety of her troops at the front made it necessary to 
prepare for this peculiarly Hideous and detestable 
form of war. As with other munitions, the industry 
to produce the implements of chemical warfare had 
first to be created. The Government built great 
plants and the immediate need stimulated scientific in- 
vestigation, with results that were like a tale of magic, 
so rapidly did these and contributory chemical indus- 
tries grow. 

The American Government did not overcome its 
reluctance to use toxic gases until we had gone for- 
ward several months in war preparations, when it was 



44 THE FIGHTINa FORCES 

found, just as the English and the French had found, 
that it would have to be done. It was November. 
1917, when ground was broken on a Maryland river- 
side farm for a huge plant that would produce over- 
whelming quantities of chlorine, phosgene and mus- 
tard gas. When the armistice was signed a year 
later the three hundred acres were covered with vats 
and kilns, refrigerators, boilers, steel towers, chim- 
neys, pipe lines, railways, and all the other means for 
carrying on the most deadly manufacturing processes 
known to man. For much of the machinery needed 
there were no existing models and many important 
parts of the immense plant were designed while it was 
being built. Experts from the French and British 
gas factories who came to assist in this development 
saw it rapidly evolve beyond their own knowledge 
and stayed to learn rather than to teach. Sub- 
sidiary plants were built also, and, altogether, Ameri- 
can poison gas factories had a total production, dur- 
ing the last weeks of the war, of an average of two 
hundred tons per day. The British production, 
speeded to its highest possible point, was never more 
than thirty tons per day, the French was much less 
and the German is supposed to have been between 
thirty and fifty tons per day. Airplanes had been 
made and successfully tested for the dropping upon 
German fortified places, such as Metz and Coblenz, 
of containers holding a ton each of mustard gas 
with time fuses fitted for explosion a few hundred 
feet above the forts. Heavier than air, the gas from 
each container, settling to earth, would not have left 
a living thing, human or animal, upon, above or under 
the ground, within or outside of buildings, on a space 
the size of a large city block. 



CREATING A MUNITIONS INDUSTRY 45 

A new poison gas was developed, far more deadly 
than any previously in use, and its manufacture car- 
ried on with the greatest secrecy. At the end of the 
war ten tons a day were being produced and it was 
estimated that a single ton dropped in bombs and con- 
tainers upon a city of a million inhabitants would 
have killed them all. Three thousand tons of it were 
to be ready in the battle zone by March 1, 1919. 

Knowledge of these preparations and surety of 
what would, therefore, happen in the early spring of 
1919 are believed by military authorities to have been 
an important factor in the sudden collapse of the 
German military plans. 

Gas was employed in offensive operations in many 
and varied ways and these and defensive measures 
were so important that the necessity for a new di- 
vision of military activities resulted in the organiza- 
tion of the Chemical Warfare Service in the summer 
of 1918. Five months old at the end of hostilities, 
the Service then contained 1,600 commissioned of- 
ficers and 18,000 men. Defensive measures also had 
been rushed steadily forward, investigation and ex- 
periment had produced a better and more comfortable 
gas mask than was in use and a big Government gas 
defense plant had been built, equipped and started 
upon production with skilled workers. The monthly 
production of gas masks in the autumn of 1918, of 
which this plant made the major part, had reached 
925,000. The total production for the year and a half 
was over 5,000,000, with 3,000,000 extra canisters, 
500,000 horse masks and large quantities of ointments, 
antidotes and suits for protection against enemy mus- 
tard gas. The American gas mask was recognized 



46 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

by all tlie war associates as the best on the Western 
frost 

In the Chemical Warfare Service at the end of hos- 
tilities were 1,700 chemists from civil life who had 
worked steadily to aid in its rapid and efficient de- 
velopment. Under the furious goad of war the Ser- 
vice succeeded in reducing the cost of phosgene gas 
from $1.50 to 15 cents per pound and therefore in- 
creasing very greatly its usefulness in various indus- 
tries, especially that of dyestuffs. The record of de- 
velopment and production in chemistry is one of the 
fairly amazing war achievements of this country and 
is replete with possibilities for the peaceful uses of 
industry. 

When America entered the war, problems and needs 
rose up at every hand, like dragons springing from 
the ground, and all of them, in all their number and 
complexity and variety, had to be met and conquered 
at the same time. None of them was more difficult 
than this problem of the creation of a munitions in- 
dustry, for it demanded a highly specialized manu- 
facturing equipment of enormous capacity and great 
variety which we did not have, concerning which we 
had in the past known but little and for which we 
had always had slight regard. We possessed for 
it neither the plants, the skilled labor nor the experi- 
ence. New industrial organizations had to be created 
and financed, plants had to be built, all the compli- 
cated and varied weapons of modern scientific war- 
fare had to be designed and manufactured, and so 
also did many of the great number and variety of the 
tools with which they would be made. Not only had 
mechanics to be trained for much of this skill exacting 
work, but the enorjnous expansion in the Ordnance 



CEEATING A MUNITIONS INDUSTRY 47 

Department made necessary rapid development of 
knowledge and skill among the big proportion of its 
new members. There is nothing more interesting in 
the detailed story of the munitioning of our army 
than the frequency with which one comes upon the 
statement that "a, school was established" for the 
training of personnel in this, or that, or another phase 
of ordnance duties. 

The bare figures of the cost of all this enormous 
creation and expansion, made many times greater by 
the nece^^ty;.,oLliaste at whatever cost, give a vague 
sort of measuring stick of the energy and the grim 
purpose that went into the providing of munitions 
for our army. In a year and a half of war the 
amount of money expended or obligated for ordnance 
totaled $13,000,000,000— thirteen times what it cost 
to run the entire government for sl year in the years 
just before the war. 



CHAPTER V 

CARING FOR THE WOUNDED 

THE story of the development of the Medical De- 
partment of the Army, its care of the human 
wreckage of the battlefield and of the physical wel- 
fare of the fighting forces both at home and overseas 
recounts one of the finest and most wonderful of the 
achievements of the "War Department. It is the same 
story of marvelous expansion in quick time, of high 
resolve and determined effort to achieve the appar- 
ently impossible, and of results that seem almost 
magical in their bigness and importance and the 
rapidity with which they were brought about that is 
true of all the American war activities. 

At the beginning of April, 1917, there were in the 
Medical Department 750 medical officers in regular 
service and 2,600 in reserve. The army nurse corps 
numbered 400 and there was an enlisted personnel of 
6,600. There were seven army hospitals with a bed 
capacity of 5,000, aside from a few small and unim- 
portant post hospitals. A year and a half later it had 
a larger personnel than that of the entire American 
army at the outbreak of the Spanish- American war. 
It numbered then 40,000 officers, 21,000 nurses and 
245,000 men. In the United States there were over 
eighty fully equipped hospitals with a capacity of 
120,000 patients and operating with the American 

48 



CARING FOR THE WOUNDED 49 

Expeditionary Force were 219 base and camp hos- 
pitals having a capacity of 284,000 patients. It was 
estimated that nearly one-third of the entire medical 
profession in the Union went into active service with 
the Army and among their numbers were many of the 
most distinguished physicians and surgeons in the 
country. Of those who went overseas, nearly half 
that number, over 1,000, were detailed to serve with 
the British forces. 

As an instance of the speed with which it was neces- 
sary to work to secure the needed expansion for the 
care of war's wreckage the story of the building of 
one of the New York City debarkation hosiptals is 
illuminating. Several acres of ground on Staten 
Island were secured for it and the entire plant, con- 
sisting of eighty-six buildings, including a theater of 
seven thousand seating capacity, with heating plant 
and electric light, water and sewage connections, was 
finished and ready for use within one hundred days 
from the turning of the first spadeful of earth in the 
preparation of the site. Its normal accommodation 
was for 1,500 patients, but it was so planned that it 
could be easily and quickly expanded to care for 
three times that number. One of its buildings, meas- 
uring 230 by 30 feet, was begun in the morning, fin- 
ished by noon of the same day, and equipped by night. 
Hospital facilities in France had also to be created 
quickly and equipped at once with all the means of 
treating the victims of scientific warfare that the 
needs of the time had evolved. One such big institu- 
tion in the Cote d'Or region, for the building of 
which railways had to be run to the site and concrete 
mixers set up and kept going day and night until it 
was finished, had 600 buildings of a permanent type 



50 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

and was, in effect, a series of ten hospitals in one, each 
devoted to its own specialty and having its own staff 
of thirty physicians and surgeons, a hundred nurses 
and twice as many men of the Medical and Sanitary 
Corps, and its own operating rooms, laboratories, 
kitchens, officers' and nurses' quarters, administra- 
tion buildings and buildings for patients. A laundry 
capable of doing the work for 30,000 people served 
the entire plant. The hospital cared for 25,000 at a 
time and beside it was a convalescent camp having 
facilities for all manner of outdoor games with a ca- 
pacity for 5,000 more into which the men were gradu- 
ated for recovery. Nearly 800,000 soldiers of the 
American Army were treated in our overseas hospi- 
tals during our war period. 

Of the hospitals in the United States a consider- 
able number were in cantonments and camps and 
were chiefly used by the troops in training. The oth- 
ers, specialized for the use to which they were put, 
were for debarkation purposes and for the treatment 
of the wounded, ill, gassed, tuberculous or blinded. 
Debarkation hospitals received them as they were 
landed and from these they were transferred to re- 
ceiving hospitals in and about the port city. After- 
ward, as soon as physically able, they were sent by 
hospital boat or train to a specialized hospital, if that 
were necessary, or if not to the general hospital near- 
est the patient's home. These specializing hospitals 
were so located as to secure for each one whatever 
advantages were possible of situation and climate. 
Several hospital trains, each complete in itself, with 
kitchen, dining and ward cars, special beds for 
stretcher cases, and a car for the medical staff, were 
provided for transportation of the wounded by land, 



CARING FOR THE WOUNDED 51 

while a number of hospital boats properly equipped 
and staffed with physicians and nurses afforded trans- 
portation by water. In addition to the hospitals, con- 
valescents were cared for in numbers of convalescent 
homes all over the country that were donated for that 
purpose by individuals and organizations who offered 
use of their homes, estates, clubhouses and other 
buildings. The Red Cross erected and staffed con- 
valescent houses at all of the base and general army 
hospitals in the United States, which gave welcome, 
cheer and recreation to the recovering patients. 

Through the port of New York flowed the main 
stream of the American Army on its way overseas 
and there its individual factors had to undergo final 
physical examination. The work of the Surgeon of 
the Port expanded from week to week, as his duties 
in connection with the army and the army transports 
grew, keeping pace with the increasing numbers that 
were sent month by month to Europe. In one mid- 
summer month in 1918, and subsequent months saw 
even greater numbers, he put his final approval of 
physical fitness on 272,000 soldiers bound for the bat- 
tlefields of France. On the first of July, 1917, the 
staff of the Surgeon of the Port of Embarkation, New 
York, consisted of two officers and one private. A 
year later there were under him 530 commissioned of- 
ficers, 110 contract surgeons, 340 nurses and 2,640 
men, while directly under his control, exclusive of 
other hospitals in the same region, were thirteen hos- 
pitals having 12,500 bed capacity of which 11,000 
were ready for use. 

A more than fifty-fold expansion in the number of 
army nurses, from 400 to 21,000, was necessary to 
meet the need for their services. Graduating nurses 



52 THE FiaHTING FORCES 

entered the nurses' corps and an army School of 
Nursing was established, with headquarters in Wash- 
ington and branches in a score of military camps 
throughout the country. Many hundreds of young 
women enrolled, took the course of training which, 
intensive and somewhat specialized for army work, 
prepared them quickly for duty. 

The developments of scientific warfare, with its new 
and fearful weapons of death and its new modes of 
attack, laid new duties upon the medical profession 
and new demands upon its knowledge and its methods 
of healing. It restores one's faith in human nature, 
after realizing the devilish ingenuity of the death and 
wound dealing instruments of the world war, to find 
how incessantly the ministers of healing worked in 
hospital and laboratory behind the lines to evolve new 
agents and new methods for the mending of the 
wreckage from the front. Whatever else may or may 
not have been won out of the vast destruction of the 
world war, the medical profession can be assured 
that its devotion and its heroic labors have been re- 
warded by a wonderful advance in the frontiers of its 
knowledge. 

The army medical officer found new problems fac- 
ing him at every fresh development of the conflict, and 
to fit him for grappling with these new phases of hu- 
man needs the Medical Department of the Army es- 
tablished numberless schools and courses of study 
at medical institutions, at hospitals and wherever 
could be brought together the factors necessary for 
this specialized and intensive training. Physicians 
and surgeons in overseas hospitals had evolved a num- 
ber of new and effective methods for the treatment of 
casualties of various kinds and medical officers newly 



CARING FOR THE WOUNDED 53 

inducted into the serYice had to have instniction in 
these developments, while for those who had to under- 
take recently specialized work it was necessary to 
have whatever training in that specialty had become 
possible. 

Intensive training and clinical opportunities were 
provided for instruction in new methods in war sur- 
gery and fractures and in the treatment of infected 
vf ounds ; there were schools for the training of medical 
officers in the use of X-rays ; of laboratory specialists ; 
for special work with diseases of the heart ; for treat- 
ment of pneumonia and of those infectious diseases 
that are of frequent occurrence when large bodies of 
men are brought together. A particularly determined 
effort was made along preventive lines to lessen in the 
American Army both at home and in France the men- 
ace of venereal disease, always feared for its power 
to lower the efficiency of armies. Instruction by 
various means, an incessant campaign of vigilance by 
specially trained physicians, treatment of infected 
men, military punishment of offenders, endeavors to 
control the surroundings of camps, all were among 
the methods with which this scourge of all armies 
,was combated, with remarkable success. The per- 
centage of such diseases in the Army was below what 
it is in civilian life and very much below that of its 
prevalence in the Allied Armies. 

One of the schools made necessary by the new 
methods of training instituted in the American Army 
was that for the instruction of military psychologists 
who were needed for the work of examining the men, 
as they came from their local boards and were in- 
ducted into the training camps, in order to eliminate 
those mentally unfit for army service and grade those 



54 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

accepted according to their mental qualifications, for 
the information of their officers, as already described 
in the chapter on ' ' The Making of the Army. ' ' Un- 
der the supervision of the Medical Corps, this school 
trained many officers for psychological work at the 
cantonments, the course lasting two months. This 
development, an American idea, was something new 
in the making and training of armies, but it proved 
its value in the higher efficiency gained by enabling 
officers to select for special duties the men best fitted 
for them and so increasing the efficiency of the fight- 
ing units. 

A new development of wartime medical science was 
made necessary by air warfare which soon brought 
into being the flight surgeon who kept under his ob- 
servation the men in training at flying fields. So im- 
portant did this division of the Medical Corps quickly 
become that special facilities were provided for the 
training of flight surgeons and laboratories were es- 
tablished for the investigation of the medical problems 
connected with the air service. 

Until the influenza epidemic swept the country in 
the autumn of 1918, after devastating the populations 
of Europe, the disease figures of the American Army 
had set a new low record both at home and overseas. 
For the year ending with the first of September, 1918, 
which covered the time from the first gathering of 
men in the cantonments, the death rate for all troops 
in the United States was 6.37, which is a 1nwe,r rafg, 
than that in civilian life for similar ages. But when 
the plague of influenza, which on its way around the 
world took a toll of 6,000,000 lives, descended upon 
the camps and cantonments in the United States the 
death rate rose to 32.15 per thousand. For the en- 



CAEING FOR THE WOUNDED 55 

tire term of the war the disease death rate was 17 
per thousand in the expeditionary forces and 16 per 
thousand in the army at home. The comparison of 
these figures with the rate maintained before the pass- 
age of the epidemic shows how deadly it was. Dur- 
ing the summer months of 1918 the death rate for the 
troops both at home and overseas fell to 2.8 per thou- 
sand. During the Mexican war the disease death rate 
was 110 per thousand, during the Civil War in the 
Northern Armies it was 65 per thousand and during 
the Spanish-American war 26 per thousand. During 
the last named war the most important cause of death 
was typhoid fever, before which medical science was 
then as helpless as it was during this war under the 
influenza scourge. It had conquered that menace and 
/typhoid, by its precautions, was almost eliminated 
\from our army both at home and abroad. But not- 
withstanding the devastations of influenza the disease 
death rate in the American Army was cut to a lower 
figure than had been reached by any army in pre- 
vious wars. The lowest previously recorded was that 
of tlie Japanese during the Russo-Japanese war, 
which was 20 per thousand. 

The battle death rate of the American Expedition- 
ary Forces was 57 per thousand, considerably higher 
than it had been in any of our previous wars. In the 
Mexican war it was 15, in the Civil war in the 
Northern Armies 33, and in the Spanish-American 
war 5 per thousand. 

Overseas, during the eight months ending with 
mid-October, 1918, only four per cent of the ad- 
missions to hospital because of disease resulted in 
death. Of the wounded and injury cases treated dur- 
ing the same period a little less than nine per cent 



56 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

died and over 85 per cent were returned to duty. 
Of the American Expeditionary Forces 4,000 were 
permanently crippled and 125 were totally blinded. 

The medical officers of all the armies won remark- 
able results in the quick healing of wounds and the 
reduction of death from battle casualties by estab- 
lishing hospital stations immediately behind the 
fighting lines, regardless of danger. This brasfi- 
course, together with the efforts of the enemy to an- 
nihilate them and their hospitals, caused much loss 
of life among them. The Medical Corps of the Ameri- 
can Expeditionary Forces had 46 killed and 212 
wounded in action, and a total of 442 casualties of all 
kinds. 

It was a comprehensive system of caring for the 
physical welfare of the American troops that was 
devised and carried out by the Medical Department. 
It had the fighting man constantly under its eye from 
the moment of his physical examination for induction 
into the army until he was examined for his final 
discharge. It analyzed his water supply, it examined 
his food and inspected his kitchens, it waged war 
against flies and mosquitoes in his camps, it made his 
environment sanitary and it devoted itself to his wel- 
fare if he was ill or wounded. 

One of the finest of all its multifold and varied 
works was the scheme for the reconstruction of dis- 
abled men and their preparation for a life as useful 
and successful as they would have enjoyed if un- 
hurt. The principles of occupational therapy were 
applied to the treatment of ill or wounded soldiers 
in hospitals, beginning with manual work for the re- 
development of strength and dexterity and continu* 
ing with occupational aids for the restoring of the 



CARING FOR THE WOUNDED 57 

nervous system and the bringing about of a cheerful 
outlook. Nurse-teachers were prepared for this work 
by courses of intensive training, lasting from two 
to four months. By the time the tide of injured 
men returning to this country was at its height this 
reconstruction work was in progress in nearly fifty 
hospitals, some 700 officers and men of the army had 
been detailed to serve as instructors and assisting 
them were 1,200 nurse-teacher aids trained in occu- 
pational therapy. 

After he had been restored to physical and mental 
health in the hospital any soldier who was perman- 
ently disabled was given the opportunity of reedu- 
cating himself, if necessary, in order that he might 
continue to take a self-supporting part in the work 
of the world. The nation had pledged itself thus 
\to care for its disabled defenders. With the excep- 
'tion of Canada, the United States was the only coun- 
try to make this duty, from the first, the affair of 
the whole people, functioning through the Govern- 
ment. By act of Congress, the work of retraining 
war cripples was placed in the charge of the al- 
ready existing Board of Vocational Education, whose 
agents would get into touch with the disabled men as 
soon as they arrived from France, tell them that the 
nation would engage to make them economically ef- 
ficient again and show them that their rehabilitation 
depended only upon their own desire and energy. 
The crippled soldier could choose any line of work, 
agriculture, industry, commerce, any of the profes- 
sions, and either add to the training he had previously 
acquired, or, if it was necessary, undertake a new 
kind of occupation. There lay before him the possi- 
bility of a variety of education that ranged from six 



58 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

months of shop work to a complete college course of 
four years. Whatever artificial limbs or appliances 
he needed were supplied and if he were short of cash 
a civiliaQ outfit was furnished. Until this training 
was completed his pay continued at the same rate as 
during his last month of active service, or it equaled, 
if this were greater, the monthly sum to which he 
was entitled under the "War Risk Insurance law. In- 
jured men in all branches of the nation's defense who 
needed this reeducation were made to feel that in no 
sense were they receiving charity but that the country- 
was only, and gladly, discharging a sacred obligation. 
Educational institutions all over the land offered 
their cooperation and the use of all their facilities in 
the carrying out of this scheme of re-training and so 
also did shops and factories and industrial and com- 
mercial bodies of all sorts. A few months after the 
wounded began to return about 13,000 men had regis- 
tered with the Federal Board for Vocational Educa- 
tion and it was estimated that there would probably 
be about 10,000 more who would need to share in the 
benefits of the plan. 



CHAPTER YI 

THE WELFARE OF THE SOLDIERS 

INTO the forming and shaping of the American 
Army for the World War went something new in 
the making of armies, something hitherto nnthonght 
of in the history of wars, for its training was based 
•upon a new idea, a bold innovation upon military 
traditions. The method of army training had always 
been to minimize the individuality of the fighting 
man, to lessen it to the disappearing point, and so the 
more surely and easily and completely merge the in- 
dividual in the fighting mass. Only so, it was be- 
lieved, could the necessary discipline, unity and uni- 
formity of an army be secured. 

But when the United States entered the war and 
set about the creation of a great fighting force its 
Secretary of War inspired the task with a new ideal 
and the whole making of the American Army was 
based on the idea of developing and heightening the 
individuality of the soldier, of discovering, improv- 
ing and utilizing his personal qualities. The unceas- 
ing effort was to make of him a better citizen, a bet- 
ter, finer and more capable man, in the conviction that 
thus he would be also a better soldier. Believing that 
the higher the grade of the individuals who compose 
an army the higher will be the grade of the army, 
all the training, the environment and the treatment of 

59 



60 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

the soldier, from the time he entered the service until 
he was discharged, were calculated to develop him 
physically, mentally and morally as an individual, to 
inspire him as a person and, in general, to -make of 
him a more intelligent, resourceful, upright, self- 
dependent, capable and moral man than he was before 
he entered the army. The immediate purpose was to 
make a better army, an army of thinking, reasoning 
units, and therefore an army so intelligent and alert 
that it would at once perceive the fundamental neces- 
sity for discipline and instant obedience and would 
gain more speedily than by the old method the need- 
ful unity and uniformity, while its composite indi- 
viduals would be more capable of efficient action if de- 
prived by the chance of battle of their accustomed 
leadership. 

That was the first and chief purpose. But behind 
it lay also the determination that these millions of 
American young men, the flower of the nation, the 
beloved of their homes, should be, as far as possible, 
enabled to preserve themselves from those debase- 
ments, corruptions and blights of army life which the 
world, ages ago, had grown accustomed to accept as 
inevitable. The purpose was that, so far as foresight 
and effort could command so unprecedented a re- 
sult, these young men should bring back no scars or 
wounds other than those dealt by the enemy. The 
outcome of this bold experiment was a complete vindi- 
cation of the vision and the faith of the man who 
insisted it should be tried. 

The preceding pages have shown this purpose of 
individual development and betterment at work in the 
methods of training the soldier, giving him at least 
some measure of education when he was deficient in 



THE WELFARE OF THE SOLDIERS 61 

that respect, instilling in him the principles of good 
citizenship, inspiring him with patriotism and en- 
thusiasm for American ideals, broadening his outlook, 
appealing to his intelligence and ambition, discovering 
and improving his aptitudes and assigning him to 
work for which he was fitted. Cooperating with the 
methods and purposes of the system of milij;ary train- 
ing was a large and varied program of recreation de- 
signed to fill the soldier's leisure hours and to work 
hand in hand with that training to make him at once 
a better man and a better soldier. A part of this pro- 
gram, that of the Commission on Training Camp 
Activities, was created by and carried on by the War 
Department, but many civilian organizations con- 
stantly cooperated with it and seconded its efforts. 

Within the War Department the Commission on 
Training Camp Activities— it had its twin in the 
Navy Department — ^was appointed by th^ Secretary 
of War to provide for the men in training such a 
comprehensive recreational and educational program 
as would entertain their leisure hours, stimulate and 
develop their faculties and better their morale. The 
Commission, with its representatives in every camp, 
aimed, as one of its purposes, to make the American 
army a singing army. Trained musicians and song 
leaders developed and encouraged vocal and instru- 
mental ability and aided in the forming and train- 
ing of bands and singing groups. As much music as 
possible was brought into the daily life and work of 
all the camps. 

An athletic director in each camp organized sports 
and in consequence baseball, football, cross-country 
running and other competitive games were of fre- 
quent occurrence. Skilled instructors in boxing, 



62 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

wrestling and other such personal sports improved the 
resourcefulness and the physique of the men. Eyery 
large camp had its Liberty Theater seating from one 
thousand to three thousand men, built on modern 
lines and equipped for any ordinary performance. 
Theater managers and dramatic directors and coaches 
wearing the khaki of Uncle Sam's service brought to 
the task of entertaining the soldiers and developing 
dramatic ability among them the knowledge and the 
skill gained by years of study and practical experi- 
ence. Theatrical attractions of every sort, vaudeville, 
drama, moving pictures, musical artists, entertainers 
of varied kinds, made the tour of these theaters and 
plays were given in them by amateur companies 
formed among the men in the camps. 

Educational work of such varied sort was con- 
stantly carried on as part of the program of the 
Training Camp Committee as to give to much of the 
leisure time of every camp almost an academic at- 
mosphere. The machinery of the university extension 
work and of the educational department of the Y. 
M. C, A. was utilized to provide for those wishing 
to take them a wide variety of college and commer- 
cial school courses. English was taught to those 
of little education and to those of foreign birth. 
Every camp had its classes in French. There was 
instruction in subjects which would prepare men to 
transfer from one branch of the service to another. 
And always and everywhere there were schools or 
classes or courses of study for intensive training in 
one or another phase of military affairs — training for 
those who would have to undertake these specific and 
varied duties, training for those who would instruct 
others in them, training for officers. Every camp and 



THE WELFARE OF THE SOLDIERS 63 

cantonment buzzed with these activities by which the 
men of a nation nnused to military affairs and bating 
war zealously trained themselves for battle and 
schooled themselves in new methods of warfare. 

The Commission on Training Camp Activities went 
vigorously into the work of education in social hy- 
giene and the enforcement of law in order to make 
and keep the camp environment, the camps and the 
men themselves morally wholesome, to the end that the 
army should be of the best fighting material and that 
the men who composed it should return to their homes 
as fine and clean as when they left. A determined 
and unceasing effort was made to keep alcohol and 
the prostitute away from the cantonments. Wide 
zones in which the sale or gift of alcohol to soldiers 
was forbidden surrounded each training area. One 
section of the Commission dealt directly with the 
problem of woman and girl camp followers and sought 
to lessen this evil by work among the women them- 
selves, by securing better enforcement of local police 
regulations and by educational and reformatory work 
in camp communities. A great educational program 
was carried on by the Government by which instruc- 
tion in sex hygiene was given in the training camps. 
During the first six months of cantonment training 
more than a million men were reached in this way, 
and the work was continued with equal energy 
throughout the war period. 

A system of government insurance, provided by 
act of Congress and taking the place of the old-time 
pension system, enabled any member of the fighting 
forces of the United States to insure himself against 
death or total permanent disability at a low premium, 
which was taken from his monthly pay. At the end 



64 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

of hostilities 4,000,000 of these insurance policies had 
been taken out by officers and men of the Army and 
Navy, totaling over $37,000,000,000. Most of them 
were for the maximum amount of $10,000. Arrange- 
ments were made that would enable each holder of a 
policy to continue it, if he sq desired, after leaving 
the service. Allotments of pay which could be made 
directly to dependents and allowances paid by the 
United States to the families of men in service, if 
such allowance was necessary, helped to relieve the 
mind of the soldier of worry as to the welfare of his 
loved ones. 

Unique in all history and an integral part of the 
War Department's purpose to make army service be- 
come a means of personal development and betterment 
for every individual soldier was the extensive educa- 
tional scheme for the Expeditionary Forces in France. 
The War Department and the Army Educational 
Commission of the Y. M. C. A. cooperated in the de- 
vising and carrying out of this plan, which enabled 
the officers and men of the American Army in France 
to continue their school, academic, technical or pro- 
fessional training while in camp. Worked out and 
put into operation in the summer of 1918, when 
the armistice was signed some 200,000 men, chiefly in 
the Service of Supply, had already begun studies of 
various kinds, but the scheme did not reach full de- 
velopment until some weeks later. 

As finally established in the winter of 1919, this 
educational plan ran the whole gamut of mental 
training, from learning to spell to post-graduate work 
in science, art and the professions. In the Army of 
Occupation there were compulsory schools for all 
illiterates, but otherwise the work was optional, and 




Iz: 

o 
< 



Q 

o 
S 

2: 



THE WELFARE OF THE SOLDIERS 65 

took the place of part of the hours of daily drill. Post 
schools were established for units of 500 or more men, 
and generally there were forty such schools for each 
division. Enrollment at the post schools ran as high 
as 2,000 and more. Correspondence courses were ar- 
ranged for men with smaller isolated units. In each 
army division a high school gave both regular and vo- 
cational courses. 

Located at Beaune, in the Cote d'Or region, where 
the huge base hospital had been built, in the great 
series of buildings no longer needed for trainloads 
of wounded men was the "Khaki University,'* at 
which were given academic, agricultural, professional, 
commercial and technical courses of three months 
each. Of its many buildings four hundred were used 
for class room purposes and others were converted 
into laboratories, dormitories, libraries and recreation 
halls. Fourteen colleges comprised this Khaki Uni- 
versity which, including the agricultural college as- 
sociated with it but located elsewhere, became for the 
time of its existence the largest educational institu- 
tion in the world. Its colleges gave instruction in 
language, literature, philosophy, science, fine and ap- 
plied arts, journalism, education, engineering, music, 
business, medicine, and all oth^r subjects usually pro- 
vided for at educational institutions of every sort, 
whether technical, academic, commercial or profes- 
sional. Especial attention was paid to agriculture. 
The engineering school offered a full variety of 
courses in civil, electrical, mining, mechanical and 
sanitary engineering. The college of arts, with an 
art training center near Paris, had 1,000 students and 
gave instruction in architecture, sculpture, painting, 
interior decoration, town planning, industrial art, 



66 THE FIGHTINQ FORCES 

landscape gardening, and furnished guidance for the 
study of art museums and structures of esthetic 
value. In the libraries of the Khaki University were 
500,000 volumes. Its faculty numbered 500 members 
and 15,000 men, all of them privates and officers of 
the A. E. F., enrolled when the institution opened. 
The Y. M. C. A., whose Army Educational Commis- 
sion had devised and organized the entire huge edu- 
cational scheme, turned it all over to the "War De- 
partment in the spring of 1919. 

Many of the faculty members of important univer- 
sities and colleges in the United States aided in the 
working out of this comprehensive educational plan 
and, under the direction of the Army Educational 
Commission of the Y. M. C. A. and army officers, 
cooperated with them in the immediate supervision of 
the schools. Nearly 50,000 officers and men whose 
record cards showed them to have been school teachers 
or university or college professors before they were 
soldiers were detailed from the army for the work of 
teaching this huge body of pupils in the post schools 
and at Beaune. 

French and British universities and colleges threw 
open their doors for those who were prepared to un- 
dertake collegiate and post-graduate work. With the 
Sorbonne leading the list, thirty French institutions 
offered lectures and courses of study, while at Oxford, 
Cambridge, Dublin, Liverpool, Manchester, St. An- 
drews, and elsewhere in the British Isles a welcome 
awaited the American army man. Furloughs -^-ere 
granted to officers and enlisted men for this work and 
during the latter part of the winter and the spring of 
1919 2,000 worked at British universities, filling to the 
last one the possibility for their accommodation, al- 



THE WELFARE OF THE SOLDIERS 67 

tliough four times as many had applied for the privi- 
lege. As many more attended the Sorhonne and other 
institutions in Paris, while the provincial universities 
and colleges of France had also their quota. 

Solicitous for the welfare of the Expeditionary 
Force and determined that its members should not 
fall below the high standard it had established of in- 
dividual worth and soldierly quality, the War De- 
partment met the problem of leaves of absence in a 
strange land by establishing ''leave areas" in espe- 
cially interesting sections of France wherein was of- 
fered a varied program of rest, change, recreation and 
entertainment. More than a dozen famous resorts in 
the Alps, the Pyrenees, along the Riviera and else- 
where were leased in whole or in part and put in 
charge of the Y. M. C. A., which saw to it that the 
men on leave had a thoroughly good time. Once in 
four months each soldier in service was entitled to a 
week's outing at whichever one of these leave areas 
he preferred to visit. Beginning in the winter of 
1918, during the first year of the operation of this 
system 220,000 soldiers were thus given an opportuni- 
ty for recreation and sent back to their duties whole- 
somely refreshed. 

Several civil organizations cooperated with the War 
Department in work for the welfare of the soldier in 
training and overseas and very greatly aided the Grov- 
ernment in its effort to enable the men who com- 
posed the army to return to their homes better and 
more capable men than they were when they left upon 
their country's service. These and their activities are 
described in more detail in the chapter on "Big 
Brothering the Army." But here the Young Men's 
and Young Women 's Christian Associations, the War 



68 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

Camp Community Service, the Jewish Welfare Board, 
the Knights of Columbus, the Salvation Army and the 
American Library Association must be referred to 
briefly because of the very great importance of what 
they did for the welfare of the American soldiers and 
because of their influence upon the character of the 
American Army. 

More than five hundred service buildings were 
operated by these organizations in the various camps 
and cantonments in this country alone, and many hun- 
dreds more overseas. They furnished to the men 
wholesome club life, in comfortable houses, with 
music, games, lectures, reading and writing facilities 
and athletic equipment. The Young Women 's Chris- 
tian Association built, furnished and officered at least 
one hostess house in every camp, wherein the women 
relatives and friends of the soldiers could meet them 
in homelike surroundings. The American Library 
Association installed in the camps specially designed 
buildings, manned them with trained workers and 
provided many thousands of volumes which were kept 
in constant circulation. 

The War Camp Community Service worked in the 
localities surrounding the camp, where it aided the 
citizens in efficient expression of their universal spirit 
of hospitality and friendliness toward the troops, 
maintained clubs for soldiers on leave, provided in- 
formation bureaus, recreation and entertainment, and, 
in general, helped to create and preserve between the 
men in training and the community in which they 
were located a normal and helpful social relationship. 

So, in a year and a half, America expanded her 
army of 212,000 into an army of 2,000,000 men over- 
seas, a million and a half in training, and two million 



THE WELFARE OF THE SOLDIERS 69 

more preparing, as these latter were sent across the 
ocean, to take their places in the cantonments. She 
turned this democratically chosen material from raw 
civilians of peace-loving traditions into gallant fight- 
ers and fused a heterogeneous mass of nationalities 
into a solid body inspired by and fighting for Ameri- 
can ideals. It was an army so eager to get intO' the 
struggle for liberty and justice against militarism and 
autocracy and its spirit was so high and unanimous 
that every regiment leaving a cantonment for over- 
seas service celebrated the coming of its orders with 
enthusiasm and was envied by all those not yet chosen. 
It was an army that, above everything else, was the 
expression of the mind, the heart and the soul of the 
American people. Almost every home in the nation 
had some part in it and it went upon its war adven- 
ture with the prayers, the blessings, the love and the 
ardent wish to serve its needs of the whole people. 
Never was an army sent to war so fathered and moth- 
ered, so big-sistered and big-brothered, so loved and 
cheered by an entire nation and provided for by its 
Government with such care and far-seeing vision as 
this that sailed from the ports of America for the 
battlefields of France. 



CHAPTER YII 

MAINTAINING THE ARMY IN FRANCE 

TO receive, care for and handle the army in 
France made necessary prodigious works that, 
like everything else in the prosecution of the war, 
had to be planned and executed at the highest possi- 
ble speed. "While the making of the army, the build- 
ing of cantonments, the development of flying fields, 
the creation of an industry for the supplying of mu- 
nitions, the building of shipyards and ships, the ex- 
pansion of the navy, and all the multitude of wartime 
tasks to which the nation at once turned its energies 
were being pushed breathlessly forward, a vast de- 
velopment of facilities had to be begun and carried 
on in France before our army and its supplies could 
even be landed upon French shores and transported to 
the front. 

The chief ports of France were already being uti- 
lized to their utmost capacity by France and England, 
and for either of these nations to give up any por- 
tion of the port facilities they were using would have 
meant a serious detriment to their war effort. There- 
fore it was necessary for the United States to develop 
sufficiently for our needs the smaller and more back- 
ward harbors and port towns. Our shipments of 
troops and supplies began to land in France at the 
end of June, 1917, and at once the ports it was pos- 

70 



MAINTAINING THE ARMY IN FRANCE 71 

sible for America to use became badly congested be- 
cause of the lack of unloading facilities. In response 
to the sore need of our war associates and their urgent 
request our khaki-clad men were sent over in a con- 
stantly increasing stream that grew month by month 
to ever larger proportions. With each 25,000 men it 
was necessary to dispatch simultaneously enough sup- 
plies of every sort to maintain those men for four 
months. And at the same time had to be shipped the 
varied kinds and immense amounts of material for the 
development of the ports, the building of storehouses, 
the making of camps, the providing of railways and 
rolling stock, and all the rest of the work to be done. 

As the vessels carrying all these war necessities 
crowded into the small and undeveloped French ports 
in the summer of 1917 they had to wait their turns at 
the docks. It often happened that a ship would dis- 
charge the most needed part of its cargo, give up its 
place to some other ship which also carried sorely 
needed supplies and wait for another turn to land 
the rest of its load. Sometimes, so great was the 
congestion because of the lack of berthing and un- 
loading facilities, a ship would find it better, rather 
than wait for another opportunity, to return to the 
United States with part of its original cargo still 
aboard, reload and cross the ocean again, when it 
would appear at the French port by the time its 
next turn came around. 

By the following summer, a year after these things 
were happening, so enormous were the developments 
and improvements this country had made, that with 
250,000 and sometimes even 300,000 soldiers per 
month pouring into the French ports, with all the 
vast amounts of food, equipment, clothing and muni- 



72 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

tions for their use that went in with them, and with 
all the huge and varied quantities of construction 
material also being landed, the port facilities were 
equal to all needs and docks, warehouses and unload- 
ing machinery were ready for the still greater de- 
mands upon them which would presently have fol- 
lowed if the war had not come to an end. 

A great part of the material for this development 
had to be shipped from the United States, as well as 
the tools with which the work was done. The piles 
for the building of the docks, the lumber for the 
barges on which to place the pile drivers, the material 
for long blocks of storehouses, the rails and cars and 
locomotives for the making and operating of hun- 
dreds of miles of track, lumber for the building of 
barracks for the thousands of workmen, dredges, 
cranes, steam shovels, tools and materials of every 
sort — almost all had to be shipped from the United 
States and unloaded at the small, congested French 
ports, which were being enlarged and developed all 
the time that this work of unloading was going on in 
the cramped and crowded space. 

In all, more than a dozen French ports were used 
by the American Government and in each one more 
or less expansion and development had to be done to 
make it serviceable, and in all the more important 
ones a very great amount of development work was 
instituted and carried through at breakneck speed. 
So much was done that through the last months of 
the war it would have been of little strategic value to 
the Germans if they could have gained possession 
of the Channel ports of France, for which they had 
striven mightily in order to cut off communications 
between England and the British armies in the field, 



MAINTAINING THE ARMY IN FRANCE 73 

for by that time there was room for them also at the 
more southerly ports. St. Nazaire was opened first 
and was followed by Bordeaux, Brest, Le Havre, La 
Rochelle, Rochefort, Rouen, Marans, Tonnay-Cha- 
rente, Marseilles and others. 

St. Nazaire, through which poured immense num- 
bers of American troops and vast quantities of sup- 
plies, in the early summer of 1917 was a sleepy little 
fishing village with a good natural harbor which was 
used only by occasional tramp steamers and coast- 
wise shipping. The berthing and unloading facili- 
ties were meager, small, old and dilapidated. The 
harbor basin was dredged and enlarged, piers were 
built affording three times the former berthing ca- 
pacity, the unloading facilities were mutiplied by 
ten. At Bordeaux, in June, 1917, there were berths 
for seven ships and no more than two ships per 
week could be unloaded. Dredging and construction 
made it possible for seven ships at the existing pier to 
discharge their cargoes at the same time and inside of 
eight months docks a mile long, which the French 
told the American engineers could not possibly be 
finished in less than three years, were built on 
swampy land, concrete platforms, railroad tracks, and 
immense warehouses were erected and huge electric 
cranes were set up for lifting cases of goods from 
ships to cars. Approximately 7,000,000 cubic feet of 
lumber were used in this construction, nearly all of it 
shipped from the United States. In less than a year 
it was possible to unload, instead of two ships in a 
week, fourteen ships all at the same time. The amount 
of development, of dredging and construction, that 
had to be done at these two ports alone indicates the 
size of the task which awaited the United States Gov- 



74 THE FIGHTINa FORCES 

ernment overseas before our men and their supplies 
could even be landed in France. 

There were very few supplies available in Europe 
for the American Army. Practically everything for 
their maintenance had to be shipped from the home 
base, and no chances could be taken with the possible 
cutting of the line of supply by enemy operations at 
sea. Therefore, for every soldier sent to France 
there went an amount of food and clothing sufficient 
to meet his needs for four months — an immediate 
supply for thirty days and a reserve for ninety days. 
The supply was kept at that level by adding to the 
amount already sent, with each fresh unit of 25,000 
men embarked from America, the increase needed for 
them. As our Army overseas grew to 500,000, to 
1,000,000, to 2,000,000, and with each new leap of the 
numbers subsistence and clothing for their four 
months' use also crossed the ocean, great cities of 
warehouses sprang up, almost overnight, for the stor- 
ing of these immense quantities of goods. Each port 
had its base supply depot a few miles back from the 
shore where were stored the materials as they were un- 
loaded from the ships. Here was kept, in the depots 
of all the ports, a part of the reserve sufficient to 
maintain the entire Army, whatever its size at any 
given time, for forty-five days. Well inland, midway 
between the base ports and the front lines, was an- 
other series of warehouse cities to which the goods 
were forwarded from the base warehouses and from 
which they were distributed to the final long line of 
storage depots immediately behind the battle zones. 
In the intermediate warehouses was kept constantly a 
thirty days' supply for all the American forces in 
France and in the distributing warehouses behind the 



MAINTAINING THE ARMY IN FBANCE 75 

front and at liospital, aircraft and other centers of 
final distribution there was always on hand a suffi- 
cient supply for fifteen days. Most of the material 
for all this vast network of storage houses had to be 
shipped from the United States. This was especially 
true of the base supply depots and the early construe- 
tion. Later, much of the wood was cut by American 
engineering troops in French forests. Let two or 
three of these warehouse cities afford an idea of the 
immensity of the task of housing the supplies for our 

armies. 

At the St. Nazaire supply depot nearly two hun- 
dred warehouses afforded 16,000,000 square feet of 
open and covered storage. Back of Bordeaux there 
was wrought in a few months a transformation from 
miles of farms and vineyards to long rows upon rows 
of iron and steel warehouses, each fifty by four hun- 
dred feet and affording, all told, nearly ten million 
feet of storage. At Gievres, what was a region of 
scrub growth'upon uncultivated land became in a few 
months an intermediate supply depot of three hun- 
dred buildings, covering six square miles, needing 
20 000 men to carry on its affairs and having con- 
stantly in storage $100,000,000 worth of supplies. ^ 

These and all the other depots had to have their 
barracks for the housing of the thousands of men for 
their operation. In each one a sufficient supply of 
pure water had to be developed, for nowhere in France 
was there enough wholesome water for American 
needs. Usually either artesian wells were sunk or ex- 
isting sources were enlarged and purified, and reser- 
voirs, tanks and piping were installed. ^ One water- 
works and pumping station had a capacity of 6,00Uy- 
000 gallons a day. Let a supply depot at which 



76 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

8,000 enlisted men were employed illustrate them all. 
Rows of neat, two-story barracks housed the men and 
a huge mess hall, which served also as church, theater 
and entertainment hall, accommodated 3,100 men at a 
sitting and allowed 6,200 to dine in an hour. Planned 
on scientific principles, its overhead service, from 
which the food was heaped on the mess kits of the 
doughboys, enabled them to pass quickly in an un- 
broken line from the serving stations, of which there 
was one for each company, to the dining tables. 
Four smaller dining halls seating 500 each added the 
accommodations necessary for the entire camp. The 
food was cooked in two large, concrete-floored kitch- 
ens, each 312 by 60 feet and having thirteen big 
stoves, and in two smaller kitchens of three stoves 
each. An underground sewer carried the camp refuse 
to the sea, there were plenty of hot and cold shower 
baths and the whole was lighted by electricity. 

At all large supply stations and permanent camps 
there were huge bakeries, each baking thousands of 
pounds of bread every day, coffee roasting and grind- 
ing plants — one of these prepared 70,000 pounds of 
coffee per day — ice and cold storage plants that made 
their own ice, of which one had a daily capacity of 
500 tons of ice and held 6,500 tons of beef, big vege- 
table gardens cultivated by soldiers temporarily unfit 
for duty at the front, hospitals, nurses' and officers' 
quarters. 

"Within a few weeks after our entrance into the 
war, and before the first troops had sailed for France, 
a railroad commission was at work there studying the 
transportation problem which would have to be solved 
and preparing for the huge organization which would 
have to be set up before we could give efficient aid. 



MAINTAINING THE ARMY IN FRANCE 77 

At first the American Army was simply a commer- 
cial shipper over French lines, then American cars 
and engines were sent over and operated by Ameri- 
can personnel on the French roads, under French 
supervision, and a little later most of the American 
lines of communication were taken over by the Ameri- 
can Army. And hundreds of miles of railroads and 
switches were built and operated at terminals, between 
base ports and supply depots, in the supply stations, 
at the front, and between camps and other centers. 

At first American locomotives were shipped in 
knocked-down parts and set up again after their ar- 
rival in France. But this method consumed too much 
time, when time cost high in human life and treasure. 
A hurried search was made for ships with holds and 
hatches big enough to receive such burdens. The 
first ship that went thus loaded carried thirty-three 
standard locomotives and tenders tightly packed in 
bales of hay. Each one was lifted from the rails 
beside the dock by a huge derrick, as easily as a cat 
lifts a kitten, and on the other side was lifted from 
its place in the hold to the rails, ready for express 
service to the front, in forty-six minutes. In all, 
1,500 locomotives, either knocked-down or ready for 
service, were transported and 20,000 freight cars were 
taken over in knocked-down parts and erected again 
at a big assembling station. There were constructed 
850 miles of standard gauge railroads for needs which 
the existing French railways did not meet, of which 
500 miles were built in the last five months of the 
war. In addition, there were constructed 115 miles 
of light railway, while 140 miles of German light rail- 
way were repaired and made fit for operation. In 
order to carry our own lines across French roads 



78 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

without interfering with traffic it was necessary to 
build many miles of switches and cut-offs. Ameri- 
cans operated 225 miles of French railways. The 
transportation system made use also of 400 miles of 
inland waterways on which hundreds of barges towed 
by tugs sent over for that purpose carried army sup- 
plies. This entire huge transportation system was 
planned, developed, operated and manned by Ameri- 
can railroad men, from railway company presidents 
and general managers to brakemen, and required the 
services of more than 70,000 men. 

The aviation program called for big construction 
works in France, where seventeen large flying fields, 
divided into several air instruction centers, were de- 
veloped. One of these aviation centers covered thirty- 
six square miles and was a city complete in itself, 
as was each of the other centers, with their barracks, 
dining halls, hangars, repair and assembly shops, hos- 
pital, officers' and nurses' quarters, welfare build- 
ings. And all of these complete, self-contained cities, 
each housing thousands of people, grew in less than 
a year upon farming lands. 

Hospitals were built upon a standardized system 
that could expand the number of available beds by 
from one thousand to five thousand in one day. When 
the armistice was signed there were in operation 219 
base and camp hospitals and twelve convalescent 
camps and the hospital service was ready to provide 
a total of 284,000 beds. One of these hospital cen- 
ters, the huge institution at Beaune, afterwards uti- 
lized by the "Khaki University," was constructed in 
a few months, its 600 buildings of a permanent type 
including the necessary operating rooms, laboratories, 
administration buildings, officers' and nurses' quar- 



MAINTAINING THE ARMY IN FRANCE 79 

ters, and buildings for patients for a series of ten 
hospitals, each devoted to its own specialty and hav- 
ing its own staff of surgeons, physicians, nurses and 
men. For the building of this hospital center rail- 
ways were run to the site and concrete mixers set up 
to provide the material, and work was kept going at 
high speed day and night until it was ready to re- 
ceive patients. 

Hundreds of construction projects were constantly 
under way for the housing, care, training and welfare 
of the army whose numbers were growing by tens 
of thousands every week and would in a few months 
more have amounted to four million men. There were 
receiving camps of tents and wooden barracks and 
dining halls and welfare structures, each of which 
had its water works and electric lighting and sewage 
disposal plants, for the debarking men; training 
camps; schools for the instruction of cooks, chauf- 
feurs, Salvage Corps workers, Tank Corps men, can- 
didates for the Engineering Corps, cavalry officers, 
coffee roasters, statistical officers, trench artillerymen, 
and for scores of other specialties in fighting and in 
caring for the fighting men, by intensive work 
through long hours every day; nearly a hundred 
factories in which were made candy, chocolate, crack- 
ers, hard bread and macaroni and coffee was roasted 
and ground, by which much tonnage was saved per 
month and costs were reduced; huge salvage and 
repair work; big laundry and sterilizing plants in 
one of which more than half a million pieces were 
washed or sterilized per week; motor truck depots 
and reconstruction parks — one of these latter trans- 
formed in two months from a thousand acres of 
farm land into a great motor plant with shops of 



80 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

steel and concrete covering 125,000 square feet, rail- 
ways and switches, storehouses and offices; and 
dozens of other structures and developments in which 
great huildings had either to be erected or leased 
and adapted to new purposes. 

Upon the shoulders of the Engineering Corps of 
the United States Army fell the task of achieving 
this miracle of construction and development in 
France. At our entrance into the war it consisted 
of 256 commissioned officers and 2,100 enlisted men, 
in seven organizations. A year and a half later it 
had expanded to 9,000 officers and 255,000 enlisted 
men, in 309 organizations of which each did a spe- 
cialized kind of work. A quarry regiment got out 
stone from French quarries; forestry regiments, 
under the permission and supervision of the French 
Government, went into French forests and cut down 
trees, set up saw mills and carried on lumbering 
operations in order to help supply the immense lum- 
ber needs of our construction projects and so lessen 
the pressure upon the shipping service ; highway regi- 
ments repaired roads and built new ones; railroad 
regiments laid hundreds of miles of railway track; 
a camouflage regiment composed of architects, paint- 
ers, sculptors and engineers protected and disguised 
army operations and ran a factory for the making of 
camouflage material; map-making regiments printed 
maps immediately behind the battle lines; others 
developed water and electric power and installed 
plants for our manufacturing necessities in more than 
three hundred localities; still others dug trenches 
and tunneled under the enemy's lines and built 
bridges in the rear of the fleeing foe for the imme- 
diate passage of American troops in pursuit; and 



MAINTAINING THE ARMY IN FRANCE 81 

sometimes they threw down picks and shovels and 
with hastily seized rifles and bayonets showed them- 
selves to be as good fighters as workers. 

All this vast and varied achievement in France, 
of which it is possible to mention here only illus- 
trative parts of a mere outline, was made possible 
by the big, closely knit and smoothly working or- 
ganization of the two branches of the A. E. F., the 
Army and its Service of Supply. At the head of it 
all, organizer and administrator as well as soldier 
and general, was General Pershing, Commander in 
Chief. Under him the five great divisions of Gen- 
eral Head Quarters, — the section that saw to it that 
all the needed elements of warfare, men, munitions, 
supplies, and materials for construction, were landed 
in France; the section that received and distributed 
all these elements; the section that trained the 
personnel of every sort; the sections that operated 
the troops and secured information concerning the 
enemy and safe-guarded that concerning our own af- 
fairs, — carried on each its own work in a great, widely 
ramifying organization, systematized and highly or- 
ganized down to its last detail. Running all these 
organizations on business principles, in addition to 
the army officers who directed the phases dealing with 
combat, were successful business and professional men 
from private life in the United States who gave up 
big salaries and important positions to work for their 
country in France on the pay of an army officer. 
Among them and spending twelve, sixteen, even 
twenty hours out of the twenty-four on the job of 
speeding each his own particular work to success 
were engineers of international renown who had 
put through mighty projects of bridging and dam- 



82 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

ming rivers, building railroads and tunneling the 
earth, experts in financial law, in mechanics, in con- 
struction, in finance, manufacturers of automobiles, 
leaders in steel industries, organizers of big business, 
officials of important railway companies. 



CHAPTER VIII 

AT THE FRONT 

WHEN Americans endeavor to estimate the value 
of their work on the lines of battle they are 
bound to see and should be glad in justice to admit 
that our actual fighting effort was small indeed com- 
pared with the vast and bloody and appalling strug- 
gles in which our war associates had almost exhausted 
themselves. They are bound to see that its impor- 
tance in the final decision was incommensurate with 
the amount of what they actually did on the fighting 
lines, although not, perhaps, with the extent of the 
nation's preparation. It fell to America to add the 
deciding strength after years of battle in which the 
combatants had been so nearly equal that their armies 
on the Western front had swayed back and forth 
over a zone only a few miles in width. 

Nevertheless, no just summing up of the last year 
of the war can fail to award to America the credit 
of having been the final deciding factor, a credit 
that belongs alike to the valor and size of her armies, 
the ability of their officers and the overwhelming 
might and zeal with which the whole nation had gath- 
ered itself up for the delivery of the heaviest blows 
in its power to give. The rapidly growing evidence 
of how powerful those blows would be, as shown by 
our enormous preparations in France and the war 

83 



84 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

spirit and war activities in the United States, had 
convinced the enemy that unless he won decisive re- 
sults by the autumn of 1918 there was no possibility 
of his final victory. And therefore he put forth his 
supreme efforts during the spring and summer of 
that year. The enormous scale upon which this coun- 
try entered upon and carried through its prepara- 
tions for war both at home and in France sent to 
high figures the money cost of the war to the United 
States, but it made immeasurable savings in human 
life, for anything less would have meant more months 
of war, even more bloody than the preceding years. 

The enemy's determination to win a decisive vic- 
tory in the spring or summer of 1918 before, he be- 
lieved, it would be possible for the American Army to 
make itself felt at the front forced England and 
France and Italy to make what would have been, 
without our help, their last stand. They had reached 
the limit of what they could do and were fighting 
' ' with their backs to the wall. ' ' Exhausted by nearly 
four years of bitter struggle they were almost but not 
quite strong enough to withstand the final, deter- 
mined, desperate rush of the foe for which he was 
gathering together all his powers. And American 
forces gave the aid that was needed to drive him 
back. 

Of high importance among the things that America 
did to help bring about decision between the battle 
lines was her share in the final agreement upon unified 
control of the associated armies in France. It was 
the voice of the United States Government through 
its representation in the Supreme War Council that 
carried the day for this measure and led to the ap- 
pointment in March, 1918, of Marshal Foch as Gen- 



AT THE FRONT 85 

eralissimo of the Allied and Associated Armies, an 
action which military authorities are agreed should 
have been taken long before and which, when finally 
brought about, was fruitful of the best results. 

The aim of the War Department, as carried out 
by General Pershing, Commander in Chief of the 
American Expeditionary Forces, was to make the 
American Army in France an integral force, able to 
take the offensive and to carry on its own operations, 
and with that end in view he shaped its training 
and planned for its use at the front after its arrival 
in France. While he offered and furnished whatever 
troops Marshal Foch desired for use at any part of 
the battle line, General Pershing refused to distrib- 
ute all his forces, insisted upon building them up as 
they became ready for the front into a distinctive 
American Army — at the signing of the armistice the 
First, Second and Third American Armies had been 
thus created — and by the time the American forces 
had begun to make themselves felt at the front he 
had substituted American methods of training, find- 
ing them better adapted to his men than the Euro- 
pean, and in his last battle, the decisive action in the 
Meuse-Argonne region, his staff work was all Ameri- 
can. 

The plan of training carried out, except in the later 
months when the demand for troops at the front was 
immediate and urgent, allowed each division after 
its arrival in France one month for instruction in 
small units, a second month of experience by bat- 
talions in the more quiet trench sectors and a third 
month of training as complete divisions. When the 
great German offensive began in Picardy in March, 
1918, General Pershing had four divisions ready for 



86 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

the front and offered to Marshal Foch whatever Amer- 
ica had in men or materials that he could use. None 
of the Allied commanders believed that men so re- 
cently from civilian life could be used effectively in 
battle and it was only General Pershing's knowledge 
of the character of his men, his insistent faith that 
they would make good under any trial of their met- 
tle and his willingness to pledge his honor for their 
behavior under fire that induced Marshal Foch to 
accept his offer. 

Brilliantly did these men justify their command- 
er's faith in them in this and in all the later battles 
in which they took part. In all, 1,390,000 were in 
action against the enemy. Less than two years before 
they had been clerks, farmers, brokers, tailors, au- 
thors, lawyers, teachers, small shop keepers, dishwash- 
ers, newspaper men, artists, waiters, barbers, labor- 
ers, with no thought of ever being soldiers. Their 
education, thoughts, environment, whole life, had 
been aloof from military affairs. They had been 
trained at high speed, in the shortest possible time, 
four or five months, and sometimes less, having taken 
the place of the year or more formerly thought neces- 
sary. But it was American troops that stopped the 
enemy at Chateau-Thierry and at Belleau Wood in 
June, when the Germans were making a determined 
drive for Paris and had reached their nearest ap- 
proach to the French capital. They fought the 
enemy's best guard troops, drove them back, took 
many prisoners and held the captured positions. Be- 
cause of their valor and success the Wood of Bel- 
leau will be known hereafter and to history as *'the 
Wood of the American Marines," although other 
American troops fought with the Marines in that 



AT THE FRONT 87 

brilliant action. In the pushing back of the Marne 
salient in July, into which General Pershing, with 
absolute faith in the dependability of his men, threw 
all of his troops who had had any sort of training, 
American soldiers shared the place of honor at the 
front of the advance with seasoned French troops. 
Through two weeks of stubborn fighting the French 
and the Americans advanced shoulder to shoulder 
and steadily drove the enemy, who until that time 
had been just as steadily advancing, back to the 
Yesle and completed the object of reducing the sa- 
lient. 

Early in August the First American Army was 
organized under General Pershing's personal com- 
mand and took charge of a distinct American sector 
which stretched at first from Port sur Seille to a 
point opposite Verdun and was afterwards extended 
across the Meuse to the Argonne Forest. For the 
operation planned against the formidable enemy 
forces in front of him General Pershing assembled 
and molded together troops and material, all the ele- 
ments of a great modern army, transporting the 600,- 
000 troops mostly by night. The battle of St. Mihiel, 
for which he had thus prepared, began on September 
12th, and this first offensive of the American First 
Army was a signal success. The Germans were driven 
steadily backward, with more than twice the losses 
of our own troops and the loss of much war material, 
and the American lines were established in a posi- 
tion to threaten Metz. 

Two American divisions operating with the Brit- 
ish forces at the end of September and early in Oc- 
tober held the place of honor in the offensive that 
smashed the Hindenburg line, which had been con- 



88 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

sidered impregnable, at the village of St. Vendhuile. 
In the face of the fiercest artillery and machine gun 
fire these troops, supported by the British, broke 
through, held on and carried forward the advance, 
capturing many prisoners. Two other divisions, as- 
sisting the French at Rheims in October, one of them 
under fire for the first time, conquered complicated 
defense works, repulsed heavy counter attacks, swept 
back the enemy's persistent defense, took positions 
the Germans had held since 1914 and drove them be- 
hind the Aisne river. 

The battle of St. Mihiel was a prelude to the Meuse- 
Argonne offensive and was undertaken in order to 
free the American right flank from danger. Its suc- 
cess enabled General Pershing to begin preparations 
at once for the famous movement that, more than 
any other single factor, brought the war to its sud- 
den end. No military forces had ever before tackled 
the Argonne Forest. French officers did not believe 
it could be taken. With the exception of St. Mihiel, 
the German front line, from Switzerland to a point 
a little east of Rheims, was still intact. The purpose 
of the American offensive was to cut the enemy's 
lines of communication by the railroads passing 
through Mezieres and Sedan and thus strangle his 
armies. The attack began on September 26 and con- 
tinued through three phases until the signing of the 
armistice. Twenty-one American divisions were en- 
gaged in it, of which two had never before been under 
fire and three others had barely been in touch with 
the front, but of these their commander said that they 
quickly became as good as the best. Eight of the 
divisions were returned to the front for second par- 
ticipation, after only a few days rest at the rear. In 




Mobile Kitchen Back of the Fkont Lines 




An American Big Gun in France 



AT THE FRONT 89 

all, forty German divisions were used against the 
American advance, among them being many picked 
regiments, the best the German army contained, sea- 
soned fighters who had been in the war from the 
start. They brought to the defense of their impor- 
tant stronghold an enormous accumulation of artil- 
lery and machine guns and the knowledge that they 
must repulse the offensive and save their communi- 
cations or give up their entire purpose and confess 
themselves beaten. German troops did no more des- 
perate and determined fighting in the war than in 
this engagement. 

Day after day the American troops moved slowly 
forward, over rugged, difficult ground, broken by ra- 
vines and steep hills, through dense underbrush, in 
the face of deadly fire from artillery and nests of 
machine guns hidden in every vantage point, through 
incessant rain and mud and fog and penetrating cold, 
pushing the enemy steadily back, until they reached 
Sedan, cut the German Army's most important line 
of communication, and so brought the end of the war 
in sight. For a few days later came the German 
request for an armistice and terms of peace. 

Aiding the fighting men at the front were non- 
combatant troops who by their courage and zeal 
helped greatly and won high honor. Eegiments of 
engineers worked with the lines at the front, keeping 
the roads open, building railways, repairing bridges 
in front of the advancing lines to enable them to pour 
across in pursuit of the fleeing enemy, and, in the 
earlier months, mining and tunneling under the 
enemy's lines and constructing trenches. Much of 
the time they worked under fire and it sometimes hap- 
pened that^ suddenly attacked, they seized rifles from 



90 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

the dead and wounded around them and fought back 
the assaulting party. The camoufleurs worked close 
behind and sometimes at the front, disguising road- 
ways, ammunition dumps, artillery and machine gun 
positions, concealing the advance of troops, most of 
the time in the shelled areas and often under fire. 
Immediately behind the front lines during the St. 
Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne offensives and under the 
protection of camouflage the map makers and print- 
ers of the American Army had big rotary presses 
on trucks and turned out the necessary maps at once 
as they were needed. British and French lithograph- 
ers had told them it could not be done, but their 
mobile map-making trains kept in touch with the 
army, turning out a million maps during the Ar- 
gonne drive. 

The Signal Corps gave services of such inesti- 
mable value that without them the successes of the 
combatant troops would have been impossible. The 
war enlarged the personnel of the Corps from 1,500 
to 205,000, of whom 33,500 were in France, where 
they strung 126,000 miles of wire lines alone, of which 
39,000 miles were on the fighting fronts. Their duties 
were varied and highly specialized and demanded the 
greatest skill and efficiency. Regardless of danger the 
personnel of the Corps carried on their work with 
the front lines, went over the top with the infantry, 
and even established their outposts or radio stations 
in advance of the troops. A non-combatant body, it 
lost in killed, wounded and missing, 1,300, a higher 
percentage than any other arm of the service except 
the infantry. Its photographers made over seventy 
miles of war moving picture films and more than 



AT THE FRONT 91 

24,000 still negatives, much of both within the fighting 

areas. 

The enemy captured 4,500 prisoners from the 
American forces and lost to them almost 50,000, so 
that the Americans took ten for each one they lost. 
The American Army captured also in the neighbor- 
hood of 1,500 guns. There were 32,800 Americans 
killed in action and 207,000 were wounded, of whom 
over 13,500 died of their wounds, while the missing 
numbered almost 3,000. The total casualties of all 
kinds, exclusive of prisoners returned, for the Army 
amounted to 288,500, while those for the Marine 
Corps totaled over 6,000 additional. The battle death 
rate for the expeditionary forces was 57 per thou- 
sand. 

In recognition of their exceptionally courageous 
and self -forgetful deeds on the battle field nearly 10,- 
000 members of the American Expeditionary Forces 
received decorations from the French, British, Bel- 
gian and Italian Governments. Our own rarely be- 
stowed and much coveted Congressional Medal of 
Honor, the highest recognition for valor the Gov- 
ernment can give, was won by 47 heroes, while Dis- 
tinguished Service Medals were awarded to several 
hundred individuals and to a goodly number of 
fighting units. 

Those of their own officers who had had a lifetime 
of military training and experience marveled at the 
spirit of these civilian soldiers and their feeling was 
voiced by one of them who said, *'They have taken 
our West Point tradition of implicit obedience and 
run away with it, as they have with every other sol- 
dierly quality." 

Field Marshal Haig complimented the American 



92 THE FIGHTINa FORCES 

divisions who had fought under him upon ' ' their gal- 
lant and efficient service," and ''the dash and energy 
of their attacks," said that their deeds ''will rank 
with the highest achievements of the war" and told 
them, "I am proud to have had you in my com- 
mand." 

Marshal Foch said that ' ' the American soldiers are 
superb ' ' and told how, when General Pershing wished 
to concentrate his army in the Meuse-Argonne sector, 
notwithstanding its many obstacles and forbidding 
terrain, he consented, saying to the American general, 
"Your men have the devil's own punch. They will 
get away with all that. ' ' 

Other British and French officers on many occa- 
sions praised the "gallantry" and "the high soldierly 
qualities" of these civilian troops, their "energy, 
courage and determination," their "discipline, smart- 
ness and physique, ' ' said they were ' ' splendid fighters 
with marked initiative, ' ' and one French general com- 
manding an American division that was in battle 
for the first time declared that their ' ' combative spirit 
and tenacity" rivaled that of "the old and valiant 
French regiments" with which they were brigaded. 
German documents captured not long after our men 
had begun to take an important part showed that 
the foe already had a good opinion of the Ameri- 
can soldier, for they spoke of his expertness with 
weapons, his courage, his determination, his fighting 
qualities and — curious soldierly quality for a Ger- 
man to recognize — his honor in battle. 

Many observers of our own and other nations bore 
witness to the fine character of the American sol- 
diers back of the fighting lines, among their fellow 
soldiers of the other armies and the civilian popula- 



AT THE FRONT 93 

tion. Their cheerfulness, high spirits, good nature 
and simple, human helpfulness gave new heart to 
the soldiers of the Allies with whom they fraternized 
and made warm friends of the people in the cities, 
towns, villages and countrysides with whom they 
came in contact. The Secretary of War, after sev- 
eral weeks of intimate study of our army in France, 
said that it was ''living in France like the house 
guests of trusting friends.'' And the Chairman of 
the Commissions on Training Camp Activities, after 
two months of investigation in all the American camps 
in France declared, as the result of this long and 
intimate association, that the question Americans 
should consider was not ''whether our troops over- 
seas were worthy of us and our traditions but whether 
we were worthy of our army." 



PART ONE : SECTION II. BY SEA 
CHAPTER IX 

EXPANSION" IN THE NAVY 

OUR entrance into tlie war found the Navy ready 
for immediate service. The almost universal 
popular sentiment against an army of large size that 
had been growing in strength for a generation or 
more had not been manifest against the support of a 
navy comparable with the navies of other nations. 
Recognition of the necessity of a better defense for 
the long coast line of the United States had led Con- 
gress in 1916 to sanction the strongly urged plans of 
the Secretary of the Navy and authorize one of the 
largest ship-building programs ever undertaken by 
any nation. This Act of Congress with the ample 
appropriation that accompanied it laid the basis for 
a program of naval preparedness and enabled the De- 
partment of the Navy to make itself ready to meet 
the state of war which was threatened by unfolding 
events. For it not only authorized the building of 
156 ships, including ten super-dreadnaughts and six 
battle cruisers, but by authorizing the enlargement 
of the Navy personnel and the creation of a big Naval 
Reserve and a Flying Corps and providing machinery 
for the expanding of the service as desired it made 

96 



96 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

possible the putting of the Navy upon a tentative war 
basis during the months immediately preceding our 
declaration of war. By the first of April, 1917, its 
plans had been drafted and its preparations made 
and it was ready for action. Indeed, its work had 
already begun, for in the previous month it had pro- 
vided guns and gun crews for the arming of Ameri- 
can merchantmen under the order of President Wil- 
son, made in response to Germany's notice of unre- 
stricted submarine warfare. 

Upon the declaration of war on April 6th, the 
fleet was at once mobilized and a flotilla of destroy- 
ers was equipped for foreign service and sent over- 
seas, where the first contingent arrived at a British 
port on May 4th, 1917. The second reached Queens- 
town on May 13th, and before the end of the month 
both were engaged in the work of hunting subma- 
rines in cooperation with the British and French 
navies. Early in June units of the naval aeronauti- 
cal corps landed upon French shores and inside an- 
other month the vanguard of the American Expe- 
ditionary Forces, convoyed by the Navy, arrived in 
France. Battleships and cruisers quickly followed 
the destroyers aeross the ocean and took their places 
with the British Grand Fleet, on watch for the ap- 
pearance of the German navy from behind its de- 
fenses at Heligoland. 

While it was thus quickly making itself felt in 
the prosecution of the war, the Navy Department at 
once entered upon a great program of development, 
expansion and training. It had in commission when 
war was declared 197 vessels. When the armistice 
was signed there were 2,000 ships in its service. In 
the same time its personnel had expanded from 65,777 



EXPANSION IN THE NAVY 97 

to a total of 497,000. In addition to the cruisers and 
battleships on the ways, 800 smaller craft were built 
or put under construction during our nineteen months 
of war. Formerly the building of a destroyer re- 
quired about two years. But the great importance 
of that type of vessel and the urgent need for more 
of them speeded production to the fastest possible 
pace and at the end of the war destroyers were being 
built in eight months and in some cases in even less 
time. In one instance a destroyer, the Ward, at 
the Mare Island Navy Yard, was launched in seven- 
teen and one-half days from the laying of its keel 
and within seventy days was in commission. The end 
of the war found the American Navy with more de- 
stroyers in service or under construction than the 
navies of any two nations had possessed before the 
outbreak of the war in 1914. In the first nine months 
of 1918 there were launched 83 destroyers, as against 
62 during the entire nine preceding years. 

The submarine menace made necessary the concen- 
tration of effort upon types of vessels fitted to deal 
with it and therefore construction of destroyers and 
submarine chasers was rushed and every vessel that 
could be effectively used was put into that service. 
Submarine chasers to the number of 355 were built 
for our own use together with fifty for another na- 
tion. A new design, the Eagle, was worked out in 
the Navy Department and preparations were made 
to produce it in quantity. The manufacturing plant 
had to be built from the foundation. Work upon the 
plant was begun in February, 1918, and the first boat 
was launched the following July. Its tests were suc- 
cessful and two had been put in commission when 
the armistice was signed while work was being speed- 



98 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

ed upon over a hundred more, of which part were for 
one of our co-belligerents. After the destroyer, the 
Eagle boat was believed by naval officers of our own 
and other nations the best weapon for the extermina- 
tion of the submarine. 

Privately owned vessels of many kinds, to the num- 
ber of nearly a thousand, were taken over and con- 
verted to naval uses and many new small craft were 
built in order to provide the hundreds of boats needed 
for patrol service and as tugs, mine sweepers, mine 
layers and other auxiliaries. Two battleships and 
twenty-eight submarines built by the navy were com- 
pleted and put into service during the war. 

Along with this big increase in ship production 
went a similar expansion in naval ship-building plants 
and in production of implements of warfare for the 
navy. Before we entered the war the Navy's ship- 
building capacity amounted to ways for two battle- 
ships, two destroyers, two auxiliaries and one gun- 
boat. At once was begun a work of expansion which 
within a little more than a year added five ways and, 
when completed, would provide facilities for the 
simultaneous construction of sixteen war vessels, of 
which seven could be battleships. Three large naval 
docks, which can handle the largest ships in the world, 
were built. Camps were constructed for the training 
of 200,000 men. A naval aircraft factory was built 
which turned out its first flying machine seven months 
after work started upon the factory. A little later 
it was producing a machine a day. Naval aviation 
schools were established and production was speeded 
in private plants of sea planes, flying boats and navy 
dirigibles and balloons. 

The navy's bureau of construction and repair un- 



EXPANSION IN THE NAVY 99 

dertook the work of making seaworthy again the 
hundred and more German ships in our harbors when 
war was declared which had been seriously injured 
by their crews, under orders from the German gov- 
ernment. So much damage had been done, espe- 
cially to the cylinders, that the enemy had thought, 
according to memoranda left behind, it probably could 
not be repaired at all and certainly not within a 
year and a half. Officers of the navy, in the face of 
opposition by engine builders and marine insurance 
companies, determined to make the repairs by means 
of electric welding, the use of which on such an ex- 
tensive scale was unprecedented. The experiment was 
successful and these great ships were in service within 
six months, the navy's engineering feat having thus 
saved a year of time and provided means for the 
transportation of half a million troops to France. 

The naval gun factory at Washington was enlarged 
to double its output. The navy powder factory and 
the Newport torpedo station had their capacity great- 
ly increased and a large new mine-loading plant was 
constructed. A big projectile factory was begun in 
the summer of 1917, and the buildings were finished, 
the machinery installed and the plant in operation 
in less than a year. 

Within a year and a half the work of the ordnance 
bureau of the navy increased by 2,000 per cent, its 
expansion including the gun, powder and projectile 
factories mentioned above. Plants for various pur- 
poses taken over by the bureau from private indus- 
try increased their output at once by large percent- 
ages, in one case, in which the product was steel 
forgings, 300 per cent. The depth bomb proved one 
of the most efficient means of fighting the submarine. 



100 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

It contains an explosive charge fitted with a mech- 
anism which causes explosion at a predetermined 
depth under the water. An American type was de- 
veloped and within a few weeks was being manufac- 
tured in large quantities, while manufacture of the 
British type was continued for their navy. A new 
gun, called the ''Y" gun, was devised and built espe- 
cially for firing depth charges. It made possible the 
throwing of these bombs on all sides of the attacking 
vessel, thus laying down a barrage around it. A star 
shell was developed which, fired in the vicinity of 
an enemy fleet, made its ships visible, our own re- 
maining in darkness. Anti-submarine activities made 
necessary an enormous increase in the manufacture 
of torpedoes and torpedo tubes, which grew by several 
hundred per cent and far surpassed what had been 
thought the possibility of production. 

The ordnance bureau of the navy developed a 
new type of mobile mount for heavy guns which, by 
the use of caterpillar belts, made them as mobile as 
field artillery although the weight and muzzle veloc- 
ity of the huge projectile rendered impossible the 
use of a wheeled gun carriage. The entire gun and 
mount, weighing 38 tons, can be readily transported 
by this means over any kind of ground. Immense 
naval guns, originally intended for use on battle 
cruisers, were sent to France with railway mounts 
especially built for them by the navy. Their im- 
portant and successful operations overseas are de- 
scribed in the chapter on ''The Navy on Land.'' 

Smoke producing apparatus, to enable a ship to 
conceal herself in a cloud of smoke, was evolved of 
several kinds, for use by different types of vessels. 
A shell that would not ricochet on striking the water, 



EXPANSION IN THE NAVY 101 

when fired at a submarine, and so glance harmlessly 
away in another direction, was an immediate neces- 
sity, brought about by the conditions of sea warfare. 
After many experiments a shell was devised that on 
striking would cleave the water, to the menace of 
the submarine's hull, and, equipped with a depth 
charge, was soon in quantity production. A heavy 
aeroplane bomb which united the qualities of a bomb 
with those of a depth charge and did not explode on 
striking the water was another development of the 
navy ordnance bureau, which, also devised a non- 
recoil aircraft gun which, after much experiment, 
was installed on our seaplanes and put into quantity 
production. Its success meant the passing of an 
important milestone in aircraft armament. An 
American device for detecting the sounds made by 
a submarine gave highly important aid to that phase 
of the war. The Navy Department equipped our 
own submarines, destroyers and chasers with them 
and furnished them in large numbers to the British 
navy. 

Not only was there need for an immense produc- 
tion of mines and depth charges for ordinary uses, 
but the decision by the British to carry out the Ameri- 
can Navy Department's plans for a mine barrage 
across the North Sea, whose story is told in more 
detail in the chapter on "Working with the Allied 
Navies," made necessary the production in enormous 
quantities of a new type of mine. Combination of 
the best types already in use and experiment with 
new features resulted in a satisfactory product of 
which large quantities were made and shipped abroad. 
All this need for high explosives caused a critical 
shortage and the supply of TNT, the standard charge 



102 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

for mines, aerial bombs and depth charges, was almost 
exhausted, because of the scarcity of toluol, its prin- 
cipal ingredient. In this menacing situation the 
navy's bureau of ordnance began making exhaustive 
experiments which finally proved that xylol, the near 
chemical relative of toluol, could be used in its place. 
The resulting high explosive, to which was given the 
name TNX, proved to be the equal in every way of 
TNT and the building was ordered of a plant for the 
distillation of xylol which would make possible the 
production for the following year of 30,000,000 
pounds of high explosives. 

Armament had to be furnished for merchant ships, 
2,500 of them, equipment for destroyers and subma- 
rine chasers, and all the multitude of requirements 
for ships on distant service and for the repair ships 
that accompanied them. All this increase in ships 
and plants and personnel called for an enormous in- 
crease in the amount of materials and stores it was 
necessary to provide for them. The greatest total 
of supplies bought for the Navy in any one pre-war 
year amounted to $27,000,000. But the greatest total 
for a single day during the war amounted to $30,- 
000,000. 

Among the giant tasks which the Navy undertook 
during the war was the building of an enormous struc- 
ture in Washington for the housing of the Navy De- 
partment, of several immense storehouses, of which 
one in Brooklyn is said to be one of the largest store- 
houses in the world, the installation at Annapolis of 
the greatest high-power radio station yet erected, and 
the completion of the powerful radio plant at Pearl 
Harbor. 

The Medical Department of the Navy increased 



EXPANSION IN THE NAVY 103 

Tinder war conditions from 327 doctors to 3,074, den- 
tists from 30 to 485, women nurses from 160 to 1,400, 
and Hospital Corps members from 1,585 to 14,718. 
Three hospital ships were added to its equipment, 
it had numerous hospitals and dispensaries scattered 
through Great Britain and France and its hospital 
service at home was enlarged from 3,000 to 17,000 
beds. 

The inventive ingenuity of the American people 
was apparently much attracted towards the problems 
of sea warfare in this conflict, for they began to send 
ideas, suggestions and devices to the Navy Depart- 
ment even before the United States became a bel- 
ligerent. After that date the Consulting Board of the 
Navy, which has charge of such matters, was almost 
snowed under by these suggestions. During our par- 
ticipation in the war the Board examined and acted 
upon 110,000 letters, of which many included detailed 
plans or were accompanied by models of the con- 
trivances which their writers hoped to have adopted. 
Most of them were either worthless or already known, 
but a comparatively small number were found val- 
uable. 

At the beginning of our war activities our naval 
roster listed over 65,000 officers and men, with 14,000 
more in the Marine Corps. A year and a half later 
the Marines numbered 70,000 and in the Navy there 
were a little more than 497,000 men and women, for 
a goodly number of patriotic women had enlisted in 
order to undertake the duties of yeomen and so re- 
lease able bodied men for active service. The total 
permanent personnel of the Navy, officers and men, 
had grown to 212,000. This rapid expansion had 
made necessary intensive training for both men and 



104 THE FiaHTING FORCES 

officers that was carried on witli never ceasing activ- 
ity at training stations on shore and on ships at 
sea in both home and foreign waters. In small-arms 
training alone a force of 5,000 expert instructors was 
built up who trained an average of 30,000 men per 
month. 

How all this immense expansion in ships, men, 
stores, facilities and production measures against the 
previous history of the Navy appears in this fact : In 
the almost century and quarter since the Navy was 
established in 1794 until and including 1916 its ex- 
penditures totaled, in round numbers, $3,367,000,000, 
an amount which exceeded its expenditures in the 
next two years alone by only $34,000,000. 



CHAPTER X 

OPERATING AN OCEAN FERRY 

THE United States had to carry on its share in 
the war from a base three thousand miles dis- 
tant from the battle zone and to transport troops, 
munitions, supplies across an ocean infested by sub- 
marines intent upon sinking as many of them as pos- 
sible. It was a task so unprecedented and so diffi- 
cult that before it was attempted it would have been 
thought, in the dimensions it finally assumed, utterly 
impossible. The enemy was so sure it was impossible 
that he staked all his hopes and plans upon its fail- 
ure. 

In this stupendous enterprise the British Govern- 
ment gave much invaluable assistance. Without its 
help the task could not have been discharged with 
such brilliant success, for this country did not have 
enough ships — no one country had enough — for such 
an immense program of transportation. But the two 
nations combined their resources of shipping and 
naval escort and with some help from the French and 
Italian Governments the plan was carried through 
with triumphant success. 

With the incessant call from Britain and France 
of ''Hurry, hurry, send men, and more and more 
men, and hurry, hurry" speeding our preparations, 
the need for transport facilities for men, munitions 

105 



106 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

and supplies was urgent. And those facilities were 
meager indeed. When war was declared we had two 
naval transports, of which one was not quite com- 
pleted and the other proved unseaworthy. There was 
no organization for transport service, because none 
had ever been needed. For the first transport fleet, 
that sailed in eight weeks after the war declaration, 
the Government chartered four cargo vessels, nine 
coast liners and a transatlantic passenger ship and at 
once began to prepare them for their new uses and to 
engage and alter other ships for the transport serv- 
ice. They had to be overhauled and made seaworthy, 
staterooms had to be ripped out and in their place 
tiers of bunks built in, big mess halls made ready, 
radio equipment, communication systems, naval guns 
and other defensive facilities installed, ammunition 
stored, lookout stations built, ample quantities of life 
boats, life rafts and life preservers provided. 

Work upon the big German liners in American 
ports that had been seized upon our declaration of 
war to repair and refit them for use as transports 
was undertaken by the navy and carried forward with 
speed and zeal. Under orders from the German Gov- 
ernment their officers and crews had injured them in 
many ingenious ways to such an extent that they did 
not believe the ships could be made seaworthy again 
in less than a year and a half, at the least. Cylinders 
had been ruined, valves wrenched apart, engine shafts 
cracked, boilers injured, pipes stopped up, ground 
glass put into oil cups, acid poured upon ropes and 
into machinery, bolts sawed through and all manner 
of mischief done that would injure without destroying 
the seaworthiness of the ships. 

For all of this reconstruction and refitting work 



OPERATING AN OCEAN FERRY 107 

there was insufficient skilled labor, indeed, insufficient 
labor of any sort, because the needs of the fighting 
forces were drawing men by the hundred thou- 
sand into the training camps and the equally urgent 
needs of the ship-building program, the munitions 
manufacture, the coal mines, the hundreds of fac- 
tories that were turning their attention to the vital 
necessities of warfare, were draining the labor sup- 
ply. There were insufficient numbers also of trained 
personnel to officer and man the huge transport serv- 
ice that would be necessary. Training for this work 
was carried on in schools on shore and on ships at 
sea, and civilian officers and crews were taken into 
the service. Sailors from the navy yards turned to 
with a will for mechanical labor in the repairing and 
refitting of ships, their zeal compensating, in some 
measure, for their lack of skill. 

The British Government gathered up all the ships 
it could spare, taking risks with its own supply of 
food and raw materials, and sent them to take part 
in this enterprise upon whose success depended the 
fate of the Allied cause. The seized liners were ready 
for service long ahead of the time in which any one 
had thought they could be repaired, the first of them 
taking their trial trips within five months of the 
declaration of war and the remainder becoming ready 
for service at various times within the next four 
months. So much more efficient had the engineers 
of the navy made them that the utmost speed the 
Germans had been able to get out of several of them 
was increased by two or three knots. The French and 
Italian Governments supplied a few ships, and the 
United States Shipping Board furnished scores of 



108 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

merchant ships, as they became available under its 
program of ship-building and taking over of sea-going 
vessels. Later in the war period a number of vessels 
were obtained from Holland. 

It was agreed between the "War and Navy Depart- 
ments that the Army should take charge of the work 
of operating docks and providing and loading car- 
goes and that in the hands of the Navy should lie 
the responsibility of providing more tonnage when 
necessary and of equipping, keeping in repair, oper- 
ating and escorting the transports. To the Navy 
therefore belongs the credit of having operated with 
marvelous success for a year and a half an ocean 
ferry service of enormous proportions across 3,000 
miles of submarine infested seas. To call it a ferry 
service is no exaggeration. For the convoys started so 
promptly from American shores, moved with such 
precision across the Atlantic, discharged their passen- 
gers and left upon the homeward trip in such good 
time that the ships came and went upon almost as 
sure a schedule as that of a ferry across a river. In 
all, seventy-six groups of transports sailed with 
troops, the size of a group ranging all the way from 
a single unescorted ship to as many as fifteen troop 
ships escorted by from one to four or five cruisers, de- 
stroyers and converted yachts. The famous Levia- 
than, with her capacity for carrying from 9,000 to 
11,000 men, made ten such trips, most of them un- 
escorted, her own guns, the skill of her gun crews, 
the care with which watch was kept and her speed 
and maneuvering ability being thought to give her 
ample protection. Trip after trip the Leviathan 
took with the greatest regularity, steaming down New 



OPERATING AN OCEAN FERRY 109 

York Bay with her decks brown with khaki-clad men, 
speeding across the Atlantic, unloading on the other 
side and returning to her dock in the New York port 
promptly in sixteen days. And in eight days more, 
just as promptly, would she be ready for another 
trip. 

From a beginning that was next to nothing, for it 
lacked merchant ships, organization, officers, crews, 
there was developed a cruiser and transport fleet of 
42 transports and 24 cruisers with a personnel of 
3,000 officers and 42,000 men. There was a fleet of 
cargo carrying ships in steady service numbering 321 
and aggregating 2,800,000 tonnage, nearly one-third 
of which were supplied by the United States Ship- 
ping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation and offi- 
cered and manned by the efforts of the Navy Depart- 
ment. At the end of hostilities there had been trans- 
ported across the Atlantic in the seventeen months 
from the first sailing over 2,000,000 troops, of which 
911,000 had been carried by U. S. naval transports 
and 41,500 by other United States ships, while Brit- 
ish and British leased ships had carried 1,075,000 and 
French and Italian ships 52,000. In the summer of 
1918 as many as 300,000 per month were carried 
overseas. Of the entire army of 2,079,880 men Ameri- 
can ships carried 46l^ per cent and British ships 
5 1^/4 per cent, while 2% per cent sailed in French 
and Italian ships. Of the total strength of the naval 
escort guarding these 2,000,000 troops 82% per cent 
was furnished by the United States, 14i^ per cent by 
Great Britain and 3% per cent by France. All the 
troops carried in American ships were escorted by 
American warships, cruisers, destroyers and convert- 



\ 



110 THE FiaHTING FORCES 

ed yachts, and American destroyers gave a large part 
of the safe conduct through the danger zone to the 
troops that were carried by British, French and Ital- 
ian ships. 

The enemy had counted confidently upon being 
able to paralyze American transport of troops and 
supplies by submarine activity and his undersea vipers 
were constantly speeding back and forth and up and 
down through the eastern waters of the Atlantic and 
even as far as its western shores. But no troop 
transport on its heavily laden eastward trip was ever 
lost and none at all under American escort. Only 
three troop ships, all told, were sunk by submarines, 
and these were westward bound and the loss of life 
_was very small. The first convoy of troop ships twice 
battled with submarines and many others were at- 
tacked, while the naval officers who did convoy duty 
saw the undersea boats upon almost every voyage. 
By submarines and raiders there were lost during our 
war period 130 cargo carrying ships but under the 
guarded convoy system these losses steadily de- 
creased. 

In a convoy the troop or merchant vessels sailed in 
echelon formation with destroyers or cruisers steam- 
ing in front and at the rear while a destroyer ranged 
in zig-zag course along each side. Naval gun crews 
manned each ship and on each one, in addition to the 
watches kept on board the escorting vessels, keen eyes 
constantly swept the surrounding waters, every mo- 
ment of the day and night. At night all lights were 
dimmed, so that not a ray of even a lighted match 
on deck was ever visible, and the great black hulks 
rushed onward through the darkness, never knowing 



OPERATING AN OCEAN FERRY 111 

at what moment they might collide with one another 
or with one of the escorting vessels. But so skill- 
fully navigated were they that all such dangers, 
though they were very real, were escaped. 

No greater feat was achieved by our fighting forces 
than this of ferrying across the Atlantic an army 
of 2,000,000 troops, with their food, equipment, and 
munitions, and the material necessary in enormous 
amounts for the creating and carrying on of the 
Service of Supply. It was an arresting achievement 
not only because of its unparalleled bigness and its 
audacity and success but also because of its vital 
importance. Without it the war could not have been 
won. And the credit for the achievement belongs to 
the American Navy. Our co-belligerents gave vitally 
important aid. But the American Navy suggested, 
developed, organized, supervised, operated and was 
responsible for the entire huge system. Into its suc- 
cess went many factors, not the least of them the 
foresight and watchfulness and careful planning of 
the officials of the Navy, from the Secretary down 
to the junior officers on the troop ships. There was 
constant study of the submarine peril and of means 
to lessen it, and it was, by autumn of 1918, almost 
eliminated by the combined efforts of the associated 
nations. There were the zeal and diligence of offi- 
cers and crew alike and the consequent high morale, 
the skill of the gun crews, who never ceased from the 
effort to make it better still by daily target practice, 
and that constant attention to detail which leaves no 
loophole anywhere through which success might drib- 
ble and slide away. And finally there were the skill, 
courage, devotion and audacious spirit of the naval 



112 THE FiaHTING FORCES 

officers whose ships escorted the convoys back and 
forth across the ocean. All these and other factors 
combined to make possible an achievement that stands 
out commandingly even in a war compact of big 
things and huge achievements. 



CHAPTER XI 

WORKING WITH THE ALLIED NAVIES 

THE American Navy was the first section of the 
American fighting forces to take part in the 
war. It was ready to begin operations at once upon 
our declaration of war, it lost no time in sending its 
first contingent across the ocean and the importance 
of its cooperation with the navies of our co-belliger- 
ents constantly increased until the end of hostilities. 
Aside from the vital consequence of its achievement 
in operating an Atlantic ferry, one of the capital per- 
formances of the entire war, its chief work was done 
in cooperation with the British, French and Italian 
navies in European waters from the Mediterranean 
to the White Sea. 

Upon our entrance into the war a patrol force was 
at once organized charged with the protection of the 
western waters of the Atlantic and the shores of 
America, from the Bay of Fundy to Colombia, includ- 
ing the West Indies and all the region west of the 
50th degree of longitude. But within a few months 
it became apparent that the enemy would confine his 
efforts mainly to European waters and accordingly 
most of our naval forces were sent overseas. For the 
protection of our own coasts and coastwise shipping 
when, during the second summer, enemy submarines 
appeared along our own shores, submarines, sub- 

113 



114 THE FIGHTINa FORCES 

chasers, destroyers, mine sweepers and other small 
craft of offense and defense were ready to be put into 
action and prevented the enemy from doing any con- 
siderable damage. 

At the end of hostilities we had in European wa- 
ters 364 vessels of all classes, of which 304 were war- 
ships, and serving there were 5,000 officers and 70,000 
enlisted men of our Navy, a total greater than its 
full strength when we entered the war. Our destroy- 
ers had been steaming an average of 275,000 miles 
per month and our ships of all classes, including only 
those actively engaged in naval duties and excluding 
those operating as escorts, had steamed a total month- 
ly average of 626,000 miles. Individual destroyers 
steamed a total, during the first year of service over- 
seas, of from 60,000 to 64,000 miles. The Navy estab- 
lished bases at the Azores, Gibraltar, Corfu, at many 
places along the French coast, at English Channel 
ports, on the Irish coast, in the North Sea, at Mur- 
mansk and at Archangel, fifteen in all. Our 14-inch 
naval guns mounted on British monitors did their 
share in the attack on Zeebrugge, and smaller naval 
guns mounted on floats and manned by Italian crews 
gave much aid in the defense of Venice. 

The bases at the Azores and at Gibralter, where 
we maintained a considerable naval force, were pro- 
vided with all the necessities for our cruisers, destroy- 
ers, submarines, chasers and other small craft which 
joined the Allied navies in the policing of the Medi- 
terranean and the adjacent Atlantic waters where we 
cooperated in the hunting of the undersea enemy and 
the protecting of transport and merchant craft. Sev- 
eral of our battleships and cruisers worked with the 
Italian Navy in Mediterranean waters. American 



WORKING WITH ALLIED NAVIES 115 

sub-chasers gave important aid in the battle of Du- 
razzo, in which they were given the advance post of 
honor and, preceding the Allied fleet, went forward 
picking a way of safety for the larger vessels through 
the thickly strewn mine field. Inside the harbor they 
shared in the battle, aiding in the attacking and sink- 
ing of Austrian steamers, destroyers and submarines. 
Assisting in mining operations and in the construc- 
tion of a mine barrage was another of the important 
works of this group of submarine chasers in the 
Adriatic Sea. 

Several naval bases were established along the coast 
of France and through the last year of the war 
seventy vessels, of which half were destroyers, oper- 
ated in these waters, their chief duty being to meet 
the convoys of American troop and cargo ships and 
escort them through the danger zone. They also 
worked up and down the French shores, hunting 
enemy submarines and escorting coastwise shipping. 
At all these repair and supply bases it was necessary 
to provide extensive facilities ; a number of huge fuel 
oil tanks were built, most of the new destroyers and 
many other ships being oil-burners; several naval 
hospitals were constructed ; a dozen naval port offices 
were established, from Cherbourg to Marseilles, to 
expedite the movements of American shipping 
through as many ports; naval aviation stations were 
built; rescue tugs and a wrecking steamer watched 
for and assisted damaged vessels ; minesweepers kept 
open the approaches to the ports. 

The principal bases from which our destroyers 
operated were Gibraltar, Brest and Queenstown, of 
which the last named was the largest ; the submarine 
chaser bases were at Queenstown, Plymouth and 



116 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

Corfu; and those for our submarines were at the 
Azores and at Berehaven on the Irish coast. The 
flotilla of destroyers that was dispatched from the 
United States a few days after our declaration of war 
reached Queenstown, part of it within four and the 
rest within ^ye weeks after that date, and the whole 
flotilla was at work in cooperation with the British 
forces within eight weeks after our entrance into the 
war. In the latter part of 1917 a squadron of six 
American battleships was sent to strengthen and co- 
operate with the British Grand Fleet that was on 
watch in the North Sea to give battle to the German 
ships if they should come out from their hiding place 
behind the defenses of Heligoland. It was this vigi- 
lant watch of the Grand Fleet, assisted by our battle- 
ships, that kept the German navy off the high seas, 
where it would have raided commerce, made far more 
difficult the transporting of our troops and war ma- 
terial to France, fought our own and the Allied war- 
ships and greatly prolonged the war and made it 
even more bloody and destructive. Our craft con- 
stituted twelve per cent of the fleet that kept the 
German navy thus bottled up and rendered it in- 
capable of harm. 

The American squadron worked in entire harmony 
with the Grand Fleet, and was assigned to one of 
the two places of honor and importance in line of 
battle, the head or rear of the battleship force. So 
vigilantly did the Grand Fleet keep its watch and 
so persistently did it go after the enemy whenever 
he dared to appear, whether in a single ship, a 
squadron or his entire fleet, and so vigorously chase 
him back that he ventured out less and less frequently 
and toward the end rarely came more than a few 



WORKING WITH ALLIED NAVIES 117 

miles from his base. All manner of temptations were 
used to induce him to come out into the open where 
battle could be joined — a few ships apparently de- 
tached venturing into the Heligoland Bight, merchant 
ships apparently without protection passing near the 
entrance to the Bight, and other devices. When the 
German fleet did emerge and a battle seemed immi- 
nent, the American division of battleships headed the 
line and would have led the attack if the enemy had 
not slipped quickly back. 

The plan of laying a mine barrage across the North 
Sea, from the Scottish coast to the Norwegian shore 
waters, originated with the Ordnance Bureau of the 
American Navy. For some time the British Admi- 
ralty insisted that it was not practicable, but after 
much discussion they finally consented and the de- 
tails of the operation of the scheme were worked out 
together. A new type of mine was demanded, be- 
cause of the depth of the water, and this and a new 
firing device had already been developed by the Ord- 
nance Bureau of the Navy. The number of mines re- 
quired to lay a barrage 245 miles long and 20 miles 
wide was so enormous and the need to have them 
ready at the earliest possible moment so urgent that 
it was impossible to provide them by the usual meth- 
ods of manufacture. Therefore the mine was divided 
into its many component parts and these were sepa- 
rately produced in as many as four hundred indus- 
trial factories. The parts were partially brought to- 
gether in sub-assemblies in this country, and were 
thus shipped to Europe, where the complete assem- 
bling was done just prior to issue to the mine plant- 
ers. There were manufactured 100,000 of these mines, 
of which about 85,000 were shipped abroad, some of 



118 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

them being used in similar mine barrages elsewhere. 
For this purpose a fleet of over fifty merchant ships 
was taken over by the navy and fitted out for the 
carrying of all this mine material overseas. Out of 
the entire fleet only one was lost by enemy action. 
Mine bases were established on the coast of Scotland, 
many mine layers and auxiliary vessels were fitted 
out and the work was carried on at a high rate of 
speed, sometimes as many as a thousand mines a day 
being laid. The American Navy furnished all the 
mines and laid 80 per cent of them for this huge 
barrage, of a greater length and in deeper water than 
had ever before been thought possible. The barrage 
was fatal to at least ten submarines within a short 
time after it was finished, and had the war continued 
would have reduced the submarine danger to little 
consequence. 

Immense quantities of oil were needed on the east 
coast of Scotland for the British and American ships 
of the Grand Fleet and other purposes and the prac- 
tice had been to send it on its journey from the United 
States in tankers around the north coast of Scotland. 
But enemy submarines took a heavy toll of the pre- 
cious liquid and the Navy Department suggested the 
laying of a pipe line across Scotland. The work of 
laying the line was mainly done by the American 
Navy, which furnished the pipe for the work. The 
line could deliver 100 tons per hour and was the 
longest in Europe. The entire work was completed in 
six months and was finished on the day when firing 
ceased. 

The relations of the American Navy with the 
Allied fleets were in every case cordial and harmoni- 
ous. The close and friendly cooperation was espe- 



WORKING WITH ALLIED NAVIES 119 

cially notewortliy with the British fleet, because the 
major portion of American operations was with it 
and the association was closer and more constant. 
American vessels operated under British command 
and British under American command effectively and 
without friction and the ability, skill and seamanlike 
qualities of each, officers and men alike, won hearty 
praise from the other. The British Admiralty sent 
a commission to the American squadron of the Grand 
Fleet to inquire how the ships were kept in such a 
state of readiness and high efficiency without sending 
them to the dockyards. 

American naval forces in European waters engaged 
in 500 battles with submarines, in which it was known 
that at least ten undersea boats were sunk by them 
and thirty-six others damaged. Deaths in the Navy 
from war causes totaled 1,200 and at the close of 
hostilities there were 15,000 patients in naval hos- 
pitals. 

In both European and American waters a total of 
48 naval vessels of all classes was lost during the war, 
of which the armored cruiser, San Diego, which struck 
a mine off the coast of New York, was the most im- 
portant. The losses were occasioned by submarines, 
mines, collisions and miscellaneous causes. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE NAVY ON LAND 

THE American Navy did work important and 
memorable on land as well as upon the sea. Its 
Marine Corps fought in decisive battles with unsur- 
passed courage, daring, endurance and aggressiveness 
and some of its big guns were instrumental in more 
quickly bringing to pass, unexpectedly early, the 
order to ''cease firing." 

The Marine Corps, the landing and fighting force 
of the Navy, added glowing pages to its already splen- 
did record. As with every other fighting force of 
the United States, it had first to increase its num- 
bers and train its new members. It had a total, when 
we entered the war, of 14,000 officers and men. At 
the end of the war it had 70,000, the new members 
having come, mainly by enlistment, from all classes 
of the community and including business, profes- 
sional, working and college men. In one instance a 
whole college battalion enlisted together. Marine 
Corps service has always attracted young men of the 
highest quality and these new members were espe- 
cially notable for their intelligence, spirit and fine 
soldierly character, qualities that shone brilliantly 
in their action in the lines of battle. More demo- 
cratic than any other fighting force of the nation, 
the Marine Corps officers are mainly promoted from 

120 



THE NAVY ON LAND 121 

its rank. Several officers' training camps were held at 
which intensive, practical and competitive work gave 
thorough training in quick time and yielded a plenti- 
ful supply of officers chosen in accordance with the 
work and character of the men. Certain quotas of 
the Students' Army Training Corps, which was hard 
at work when the armistice was signed, were desig- 
nated for Marine Corps service. Recruiting and train- 
ing stations for the Corps were increased and en- 
larged and intensive training of the recruits went on 
steadily, with such especial attention to rifle practice 
that when the Marines drove the enemy back at Bel- 
leau Wood over 90 per cent of the men in line had 
qualified as marksmen, sharp shooters or expert rifle- 
men. 

When the German Army, in its steady drive toward 
Paris in the last days of May, 1918, had reached its 
nearest point to the capital city and the Allied armies 
were facing a serious crisis. General Pershing offered 
to Marshal Foch whatever he had in men and ma- 
terial that the French Generalissimo could use and 
a division composed of regiments of Marines and 
of the Regular Army was thrown forward to block 
the German advance, which had been rolling steadily 
onward and driving everything before it at the rate 
of six or seven miles per day. The Marines blocked 
the advance in an engagement on June 2nd. Calmly 
setting their rifle sights and aiming with precision, 
they met the German attack and under their deadly 
fire, supported by machine guns and artillery, the 
enemy lines wavered, stopped, and broke for cover. 

Then followed, a few days later, the fierce and 
stubborn attacks of the Marines upon the defenses 
which the Germans had set up and which they held 



122 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

with determination. Belleau Wood, a jungle of un- 
derbrush, heavy foliage and piles of boulders, they 
had filled with machine gun nests. The Marines at- 
tacked in wave formation, rushing, halting, rushing 
again, the rear waves plunging forward over the dead 
and wounded bodies of those who had fallen. It was 
almost a month before the Americans reached their 
final objectives and completely routed the Germans 
from Belleau Wood, to be known ever after as the 
Wood of the American Marines because of the valor 
and heroism with which it was won. They fought 
day and night, day after day, much of the time with- 
out sleep or water or hot food. Their officers sent 
back messages that the men were exhausted and must 
be relieved and were told that the lines must hold and 
if possible continue to attack. And the lines again 
went forward. They fought from tree to tree, they 
charged machine gun nests with the bayonet, wiped 
them out and turned the guns against the retreating 
foe. Some companies lost every commissioned officer, 
some that had entered the battle 250 strong dwindled 
to fifty or sixty. The Germans threw in fresh troops, 
their best Prussian Guards, with orders to retake the 
lost positions at whatever cost. But the Marines and 
their fellows of the Regular Army held on, repulsed 
the fresh attacks, and slowly advanced their posi- 
tions. And at last, toward the end of June, with 
some reenforcements and following an artillery bar- 
rage that tore the woods into fragments, the Marines 
made their final successful rushes and with rifle and 
bayonet cleaned out all the remaining machine gun 
nests. The enemy had been turned back, Paris had 
been saved, the morale of the best German troops had 
been undermined and the Allied commanders and 



THE NAVY ON LAND 123 

armies had been shown what raw American troops 
could do. After the battle of Belleau Wood neither 
British nor French commanders had any doubt about 
sending American troops anywhere, no matter 
whether they had had much or little training and 
little or no experience. 

At Soissons, in July, the Marines again showed 
their valor and at the battle of St. Mihiel, in mid- 
September, they took over a portion of the line and, 
attacking with two days' objectives ahead of them, 
won them all by mid-afternoon of the first day. And 
early in October the Second Division, brigaded with 
the French and still composed of Marines and Regu- 
lars, swept forward in an attack on Blanc Mont Ridge, 
east of Rheims, the keystone of the German main posi- 
tion, for the possession of which German and Allied 
Armies had fought many bitter battles. The Marines 
and their companions attacked the rugged and wood- 
ed Blanc Mont, rushed the enemy before them across 
its summit and pushed him down the slope, repulsed 
counter attacks and forced the Germans to fall back 
from before Rheims and yield positions they had held 
for four years. 

The casualty list of the Marine Corps amounted 
to about 6,000, of whom only 57 were captured by 
the enemy. They lost approximately half of their 
numbers who entered battle. But they took more 
prisoners than they lost, all told, of their own men, 
and they inflicted more casualties than they received. 

The big guns sent by the Navy to France for land 
warfare played an important part in the decisive bat- 
tles of the last few weeks of the war. These huge, 
14-inch guns, 66 feet long, had been intended orig- 
inally for the new battle cruisers, but a change of 



124 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

ship design had made them available for other uses 
and the Navy Bureau of Ordnance suggested that 
they be put on railway mounts and used on land. 
They were first offered to the British authorities for 
use behind their lines, but they doubted the effective- 
ness of the guns and delayed final answer until Gen- 
eral Pershing asked for them. At the end of Decem- 
ber, 1917, not a drawing for the mounts had been 
started. Four months later one of the guns was roll- 
ing on the wheels of a completed mount for long 
range tests at the Sandy Hook Proving Ground. At 
the end of hostilities forty-four guns and mounts had 
been sent over in various steps of preparation for 
the front and six of the monsters had been in action, 
throwing their destructive shells far behind the Ger- 
man lines. 

The railway mounts, designed for this particular 
purpose, were built and covered with armor plate by 
the Navy according to plans and designs prepared by 
its Ordnance Bureau, while the locomotives and the 
twelve cars for the operating forces of each gun, in- 
cluding berth and kitchen cars, armored ammunition 
cars, machine shop cars containing everything from 
a forge and anvil to a handsaw, crane and wireless 
cars, were all built and equipped especially for the 
purposes of these land batteries of naval guns. In- 
tensive training was given to the men, all of them 
taken from naval forces, who would operate the huge 
batteries in France and serve the guns in action. The 
whole battery was so mobile that even if it were in 
action when the order came to move, the gun, per- 
sonnel and entire train of cars could be put under 
way in an hour. 

The first gun to be sent landed in France in the 



THE NAVY ON LAND 125 

latter part of June but did not go into action against 
the enemy until mid-September, when, placed near 
Soissons, it fired on the railroads entering Laon. It 
had been intended for use against the German ''Big 
Bertha" that had been dropping shells upon Paris 
from a distance of over seventy miles, but on the day 
in August when the American gun was ready to be- 
gin action *'Big Bertha" retired and was heard of 
no more. 

The German long range guns which bombarded 
Paris and Dunkirk and other places were set on 
permanent steel and concrete foundations, and there- 
fore were immobile, and the military efficiency of 
their shells was reduced by the fact that they were 
small and made for long flight. The enormous shells 
of the American guns had a range of thirty miles, 
weighed 400 pounds each, seven times as much as the 
German, and could penetrate eight feet of solid con- 
crete. Each gun, without its mount, weighed more 
than a hundred tons. They fired heavier projectiles 
and had a greater range than any mobile land artil- 
lery that had previously been used. Their chief use- 
fulness was in the destruction of ammunition dumps 
and of railroad yards and rolling stock and the conse- 
quent demoralization of the enemy's transportation 
system. When the shells from one of the guns were 
directed upon the railroad stations and yards of 
Montmedy and Longuyon they stopped all traffic 
there and one which struck the German headquarters 
killed twenty-eight members of the general's staff. 

Cruising through France like battleships on wheels, 
demonstrating their perfect mobility and proving 
their usefulness by cutting the enemy's lines of com- 
munication and seriously obstructing his transporta- 



126 THE FiaHTING FORCES 

tion, these big naval guns on railway mounts proved 
their value so triumphantly that the Navy had been 
requested, when the end came, to provide as many 
more as it could rush quickly to the front. 

The Navy also removed a number of 7-inch guns 
from battleships, the changed conditions of warfare 
demanding a lighter and quicker firing gun, and de- 
vised for them, at General Pershing's request, a new 
type of mount, utilizing the principle of the cater- 
pillar belt and thus making it possible for them to 
travel directly over any kind of ground. So satis- 
factory were the first tests that the Army asked the 
Navy to furnish 36 such guns and mounts as quickly 
as possible and these were being rushed to completion 
when the armistice was signed. 

The Navy maintained a large personnel and car- 
ried on considerable operations on shore both in 
Great Britain and France. On the coast of each of 
these countries was a series of bases for the repair 
and upkeep of escorting and patrolling ships, from 
cruisers to converted yachts. In many cases it was 
necessary to construct complete repair plants. At 
every naval base overseas there was a fully equipped 
hospital. In Scotland the Navy took over an entire 
watering place whose hotels, bath-houses and other 
structures were converted into large hospital build- 
ings wherein were cared for many British as well 
as our own sick and wounded. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE WINGS OF THE NAVY 

THE wings of the Navy, that had barely begun to 
sprout when the United States became a belli- 
gerent, grew in a year and a half as if under a con- 
jurer's wand. Previous to that time the appropria- 
tions that had been granted for the development of 
naval aeronautics had been so small that little could 
be done. Upon our declaration of war the Navy had 
22 low powered seaplanes of no value except for 
training purposes, five kite and two free balloons and 
one dirigible balloon, and the Naval Aviation Service 
had three stations, but no adequate training field, 
while its personnel consisted of 45 naval aviators and 
less than 200 enlisted men. 

When the armistice was signed the Aviation Service 
of the American Navy had 1,656 trained airplane 
pilots, of whom half were in service over European 
waters; 1,349 ground, or executive, officers; 3,912 
student officers at training fields at home or abroad 
who would soon have been ready for service ; an en- 
listed personnel numbering almost 37,000; approxi- 
mately 8,000 trained mechanics and 6,000 more in 
training; in France, sixteen naval aviation stations 
besides others for training and supply work; two 
stations in England and four in Ireland ; three sta- 
tions in Italy and the Azores ; two stations in Canada ; 

127 



128 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

one station in the Canal Zone ; eleven stations in the 
United States; 759 seaplanes and flying boats in 
service for patrol and bombing work and 140 air- 
planes or land machines for land service, with 491 
seaplanes and 100 land airplanes for training pur- 
poses, while a dozen planes of new and experimental 
types were being tried out; 282 kite and seven free 
balloons and 11 dirigible balloons. Many hundreds of 
seaplanes, flying boats and balloons of various kinds 
were on order for early delivery. All this develop- 
ment of material and personnel, of systems of train- 
ing for pilots, ground officers and mechanics, of sta- 
tions and service, and of the big and smoothly work- 
ing organization that produced important results in 
the work of the naval aviators was the growth of but 
eighteen months. 

To ensure the rapid production of planes a naval 
aircraft factory was erected at the Philadelphia Navy 
Yard. The contract for its construction was signed 
in August, 1917, and in the following March, 228 
days after the breaking of the ground, the first ma- 
chine had been completed and was given its trial 
flight. And a few days later this machine and an- 
other which had followed it to completion and trial 
were on their way to Europe. In the meantime, in 
order to meet the expansion which was foreseen to 
be necessary in naval aviation plans, the naval air- 
craft building was greatly enlarged. Included in 
the extension was a huge assembly plant for the as- 
sembling of airplane parts separately built in a large 
number and variety of private manufacturing plants 
whose work for the aircraft factory was directed by 
its management. By this means team work was se- 
cured, resulting in quick deliveries and an ample 



THE WINGS OF THE NAVY 129 

supply of craft for both service and training pur- 
poses. By September of 1918 enough naval aircraft 
had been shipped overseas to meet the needs of its as- 
sembly bases there for several months. The big rubber 
plants which had almost ceased the manufacturing of 
balloons renewed and expanded that phase of their 
activities and balloon fields and schools were created 
or enlarged and newly equipped. The completion of 
the Liberty motor brought the later development of 
the flying boat, used especially for coastal patrol 
work. 

Candidates for flying commissions were sent to 
technical institutions for special courses and after- 
ward to flying stations for instruction in flying. The 
most difficult part of the problem of seaplane con- 
struction was that of finding skilled workmen and 
personnel for their direction acquainted with the mak- 
ing of aircraft. The same difficulty handicapped the 
procuring of trained officers and enlisted men for 
work at the supply and repair stations, which were 
constantly busy with the assembling and upkeep of 
the machines. To meet this difficulty half a score 
or more of schools for naval aviation mechanics were 
established in different parts of the country, with a 
force of instructors, who volunteered for the work, 
composed of professors in technical schools and col- 
leges. From these schools came the trained mechanics 
and ground officers who filled the roster of the Naval 
Aviation Service at the end of hostilities. 

The Navy Department saw at once that the most 
important aid its Aviation Service could give would 
be coast-wise work directed against the submarine 
menace. "With that end in view it located its sta- 
tions at strategic and important points all down the 



130 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

eastern coast of the United States, eleven in all, from 
Cape Cod to Key West, with another in the Canal 
Zone. Similarly its patrol stations were dotted up 
and down the shores of France, the British Isles and 
the Azores. On both shores of the Atlantic its di- 
rigibles and seaplanes helped to escort outgoing con- 
voys and went far out to sea to meet those coming in, 
eagle eyes sweeping the waters to watch for and warn 
against the sea vipers. The dirigibles were especially 
useful in this convoy work, as they were able to keep 
pace with the ships. 

In addition to this assistance in the convoy service 
the naval aviators ranged above the waters far out 
from shore, hunting submarines, looking for disabled 
vessels and for boats and wreckage carrying ship- 
wrecked passengers and crews sent adrift on the ocean 
by submarine officers, and locating mines, and they 
carried on bombing operations by sea and land. 

The first United States forces to land in France 
for service against the enemy belonged to the Air 
Service of the Navy, which set ashore there within 
a month after our declaration of war five naval air 
pilots and 100 enlisted men. From this beginning 
grew the nine seaplane, one training, three dirigible 
and three kite stations that dotted the French shores 
from Dunkirk almost to the Spanish border. Most 
of these stations were used for convoy work, for sub- 
marine hunting and for searching for mines and 
wrecks. But at Dunkirk was a station for bombing 
operations which made day and night attacks on the 
German naval bases and supply depots along the 
Flanders coast, with especial attention to Zeebrugge 
and Ostend. After the British blockaded the en- 
trances to those places the naval aviators, American, 



THE WINGS OF THE NAVY 131 

British and Belgian, cooperating in tlie work, dropped 
sucli a steady rain of bombs by day and night that 
the Germans were prevented from clearing away the 
obstructions. Two stations that were completed and 
in operation within ten months included a large avia- 
tion school and flying field at a lake near the coast, 
which specialized in bombing practice, and an avia- 
tion assembly and repair base with large machine 
shops and accommodations for the housing of their 
5,000 men. The naval aviation stations along the 
French shores were so spaced that the entire coast 
line could be kept constantly under the observation 
of seaplanes and dirigibles. Some of the stations 
were located on uninhabited islets and others in tiny 
fishing villages on bleak peninsulas. This naval avia- 
tion force with its dirigibles and seaplanes cooper- 
ated so well with the sea patrol that between them 
they kept the whole of the French coast, for fifty 
miles from shore, safe from submarines through the 
last six months of the war. 

The two naval aviation stations in Italy and that 
on the Islands of the Azores cooperated with the 
British and the Italian air patrols in the never ceas- 
ing hunt for submarines, the locating of mines, the 
watching for wrecks and the convoy of troop and 
merchant ships. Especially harmonious and cordial 
was the teamwork of the men of our six naval air 
stations in England and Ireland with the men of the 
British naval air service. The aviators flew together, 
they used each other's planes, cooperated in the 
guarding of the coasts and the convoy of incoming 
and outgoing groups of troop transports and cargo 
vessels, worked together upon perilous enterprises. 
Some of the most moving tales of daring adventure 



132 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

and heroic endurance of the whole war narrate the 
deeds of these American boys who gnided the wings 
of the navy over the coasts and waters of England, 
Ireland and France. 

In the United States alone naval aircraft flew a dis- 
tance of over 6,000,000 miles. On the other side, sea- 
planes and dirigibles aided in the convoying and pro- 
tecting of 75,000 ships. Submarine hunting, which 
had a greater development than any other line of 
naval air work, reached a notable point of scientific 
exactness in its methods. Each patrol as it started 
out had mapped for it designated areas of the air of 
certain sizes and shapes and locations which it cov- 
ered by following the directed courses by means of 
the compass. It is certain that many submarine at- 
tacks upon our shipping were thus prevented and 
that, by the dropping of bombs, several undersea 
boats were sunk. At the time of the signing of the 
armistice the plans of the Navy for its Air Service 
had not nearly reached the peak of development. 
But its effect upon submarine activities was already 
evident and it is probable that it saved in values of 
shipping that would have been destroyed but for its 
protection more than its development cost the Navy 
Department, which had expended upon it $100,000,- 
000. 

The Marine Corps, the Navy's landing force of 
fighting men, developed its own Aviation Service with 
both heavier and lighter than air craft, for flying 
above both land and water, which gave important as- 
sistance in several parts of the battle front. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE TRAINING OF THE RESERVES 

THE rapid, splendid expansion of the navy to 
more than sevenfold its former size brought its 
own big problems of how to prepare for a very special- 
ized kind of life and duty young men having, a^ was 
the ease with most of them, no sea tradition in their 
blood and but little previous interest in the naval 
affairs of their own country. In Great Britain there 
are hundreds of families whose names have been rep- 
resented in the British naval roster, without the break 
of a single generation, for centuries. The very 
strength of the tradition draws the sons of these 
houses into the naval service by an insuperable at- 
traction and from childhood attunes their minds and 
hearts to preparation for naval life and work. And 
everywhere in Britain pride in the navy is high and 
interest in it is keen. 

No such previous mental attitude of a whole peo- 
ple made easy the problem of expanding the Ameri- 
can navy and training its new recruits under the 
necessity of the highest possible speed. Pride and in- 
terest in their navy have always been potential rather 
than actual and constant among the American people. 
If it did something, in war or peace, that aroused 
their sub-conscious feeling about it they were quick 
and ardent in their response. But through year 

133 



134 THE FiaHTING FORCES 

after year the navy was sometliing as foreign to the 
daily life and interests of the great mass of people in 
all that wide extent of inland country wherein lives 
the majority of the population as were the canals on 
Mars. Very few of them ever saw a battleship or a 
destroyer or a naval officer or a bluejacket and only 
an occasional picture, or newspaper headline, or 
magazine article reminded them at wide intervals of 
the American navy's existence. 

Under such conditions, the quick response of the 
country to the navy 's needs was one of the finest and 
least to be expected of its many achievements. From 
all over the country, Mid-Western and coastal re- 
gions alike, young men began to pour into the naval 
recruiting stations, and it is well within the truth to 
say that the majority of them came from homes and 
from regions in which the navy had hardly been even 
mentioned or thought about by any one from year's 
end to year's end. Moreover, they were mainly men 
of old American stock. The navy for this war did 
not become a fused mass of nationalities, as the army 
did, but returned to a condition even more thoroughly 
native-American than it had recently shown. Be- 
tween ninety and one hundred per cent of the sea- 
men of the enlarged neiYy were American born. The 
most of them were of that fine type of young men, 
educated and intelligent, who become, a little later, of 
consequence in their communities. In their training 
the fact that they had had no *'sea legs" in their 
ancestry, or in their own minds and hearts, did not 
seem to matter in the least. They took to the train- 
ing and to the life on the sea-washed, rolling decks 
of destroyers, chasers and other craft as ducks take 
to water. 



THE TRAINING OF THE RESERVES 135 

The increase of over 400,000 in the naval personnel 
came partly through expansion in the permanent 
strength of the navy, partly through the enlargement 
of the various naval reserves, fleet, auxiliary, coast de- 
fense and others, and to some extent through the na- 
tional naval volunteers and the Marine and Hospital 
Corps. In September, 1918, provision was made by 
which men in the selective service might enter the 
navy instead of the army. A quota of 15,000 men a 
month was allotted to the naval service, and 5,000 
monthly to the Marine Corps for four months, after 
which its monthly quota was to have been 1,500. 
Provision for the navy was made, at the end of Sep- 
tember, in the Students' Army Training Corps, under 
instruction in several hundred colleges, and naval 
sections were established in ninety of these institu- 
tions and placed under the instruction of naval of- 
ficers. 

But the sudden close of the war in November made 
unnecessary the completion of these plans for the 
further expansion of the navy. While increasing its 
size and strength at the swift pace that marked all 
our war preparations, at the same time it met every 
need for its services, of whatever sort, with prompt- 
ness and efficiency. That had meant zealous and in- 
cessant work in the education for their new duties of 
more than 300,000 young men who had joined the 
Naval Reserve Force, in addition to those who had 
become a part of the naval forces in other ways. At 
a number of immense camps, where were built bar- 
racks, lecture halls and other necessary buildings for 
the housing and training of from 20,000 to 40,000 
students at each station, the young men were trained 
in naval discipline and schooled in the maritime and 



136 THE FiaHTING FORCES 

naval subjects in whicli they must be proficient. 
Special schools for officers gave to those who were 
qualified and ambitious the necessary instruction. 
Other schools for advanced and specialized work 
trained officers for submarine duty, for assignment to 
the naval torpedo station and for work as naval avi- 
ation and naval turbine-engine engineers. An inten- 
sive course of instruction at Annapolis Naval Acad- 
emy completed the training for officer duty for many 
who had already had sea service. 

The Navy furnished during the war to the United 
States Shipping Board 200,000 trained enlisted men, 
as well as 20,000 trained officers, to man its new ships, 
and the training for these men, in addition to that for 
fireman's and seaman's duty given at the regular 
naval training stations, was provided in nearly fifty 
different schools, from those for carpenters, cooks, yeo- 
men, signalmen and divers, to those for mine sweep- 
ing, searchlight control and aviation aerography. On 
both ships of the Navy and naval-manned merchant 
ships sea-training constantly went on of those who 
had finished the courses at training stations, camps 
and schools, each ship of whatever type receiving its 
quota for a certain length of training in specified 
duties. Training bases in Europe for men who had 
already had some service aboard ship furnished ma- 
terial for refilling the crews of destroyers, part of 
whose complement had been sent back to this country 
to form the nucleus of new destroyer crews. 

The taking over by the Navy, upon our declaration 
of war, of all radio stations, the constantly increasing 
demand for radio operators in the Navy and on mer- 
chant vessels in the transport service and in com- 
merce made necessary greatly enlarged radio train- 



THE TRAINING OF THE RESERVES 137 

ing facilities. Two large naval radio schools were de- 
veloped, one at Harvard University and the other at 
Mare Island Navy Yard, each of which gave a fonr- 
months' course and graduated thousands of operators. 
In all the naval training camps, stations and schools 
the utmost effort was made, as in the army training 
camps, to conserve the physical, mental and moral 
well being of the young men preparing for sea service. 
The activities and beneficence of the Army Commis- 
sion on Training Camp Activities have already been 
described. Under the same head and working along 
similar lines the Navy Commission on Training Camp 
Activities busied itself with the welfare of the men 
fitting for naval service and provided them with 
books, sports, lectures, music, theatrical entertain- 
ments, moving pictures. There was the same en- 
deavor to develop musical and dramatic talent and 
direct its use among the men. The cordial coopera- 
tion of the same civilian organizations that did so 
much to promote the welfare of the soldiers in train- 
ing aided also in safeguarding the naval recruits and 
in adding to their pleasure. The thorough organiza- 
tion of athletic sports in all the camps, both outdoors 
and indoors, provided seasonal recreation in the way 
of football, baseball, basket ball, hockey, running 
races, boxing, wrestling, rowing and swimming. In 
the last named sport, when it was found that less 
than half the young men gathering in the camps were 
able to swim, instructors were added to the list of ath- 
letic directors and told to make sure that every mau 
in the camp learned to take care of himself in the 
water. 



PART ONE: SECTION III. IN THE AIR 
CHAPTER XV 

CREATING A NEW BRANCH OP WARFARE 



T 



HE United States had to create for itself, after 
_ entering the war, not only the new arm of air 
warfare almost from its very foundation, but also the 
industry for its development and support. Much 
controversy raged over the Goverment's air program 
and its progress during almost the entire year and a 
half and many and loud and long-continued were the 
charges of inefficiency, incompetence and failure. 
Mistakes there were, since human beings have not yet 
ceased the making of them, but when America's 
achievement in air warfare is considered in all its 
phases and as a whole the frank and fair judgment 
can not fail to be that her development of the air sec- 
tion of her fighting forces deserves to rank among the 
most notable of all her wartime achievements. ^ 

In April, 1917, this country had in the Aviation 
Section of the Signal Corps two small and poorly 
equipped flying fields, sixty-five officers, 1,120 men 
and less than 300 second rate planes, most of them 
for training, and there were ready for its use com- 
paratively few of the many and varied manufacturing 
industries and the trained workmen necessary for the 

139 



140 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

development of an extensive war aviation program. 
Nor was there any one who had more than a vague 
appreciation of the complicated technique that would 
be required for such a development. 

Although aviation had been born in the United 
States it had not received here the interest and com- 
mercial encouragement necessary for its growth and 
had had to betake itself to Europe to find the means 
and the opportunity for development. This lack of 
commercial interest had been reflected in the army 
and a conservative General Staff had given only the 
slightest consideration to the military possibilities of 
aircraft. Not until the summer of 1914 had an avia- 
tion section been incorporated in the army and there 
had been very little increase or betterment in its fa- 
cilities during the following two and a half years. 
Even after our declaration of war an important air- 
craft participation was not contemplated by the Gen- 
eral Staff until it was asked for by our war associates. 

At the outbreak of the war each of the great bellig- 
erents was better equipped for air warfare than was 
the United States, just as they were better prepared 
for war in every way — ^war having been for centuries 
almost the normal condition of Europe, while wars 
had been few in America's short history. But even 
their planes were comparatively few in number, 
poorly equipped and of uncertain military value. 
Aircraft had quickly proved their importance and 
under the stress and competition of actual warfare 
there had been already wonderful developments in the 
size, horse-power, equipment and usefulness of the 
planes and in the skill of the pilots and the methods 
of training. But, because the needs at the front were 
ever changing and it was often necessary to discard 



CEEATING NEW BRANCH OF WARFARE 141 

one week the successful achievement of the week be- 
fore and constantly to reach out for new means and 
new methods, all this development was of less value 
to the United States than it would have been under 
more stable conditions. Any of it might have to be 
scrapped any day because of the developments of 
the day before. Moreover, so urgent was the need of 
England, France and Italy for every flier and every 
plane they possessed that, in justice to their own 
hard pressed battle lines, they could not offer as much 
assistance as they would have liked to give to the de- 
velopment of our rapidly planned air program. 

That program was instituted in accordance with 
the urgent representations of the British and French 
war missions which came to this country soon after 
our declaration of war. The plans of the Allied 
forces, formed under the immediate and the clearly 
foreseen conditions of battle, called for great numbers 
of planes, pilots and mechanicians at the earliest pos- 
sible moment they could be sent overseas. There- 
fore, the Government began at once to provide the 
industries and institute the training facilities neces- 
sary for the creation of this new branch of warfare. 
The development had to be from the foundation on 
both the side of production and the side of training. 
From the cutting of spruce trees in northwestern for- 
ests and the weaving of wing fabric to the making of 
the engines and the oil for their lubrication, the in- 
dustry of airplane production had to be developed 
and speeded to the point where it would meet the de- 
sires of our war associates. This country had never 
trained an aviator sufficiently for participation in 
aerial warfare and it had neither schools, nor flying 
fields, nor fliers trained for teaching, nor a scheme of 



142 THE FiaHTING FORCES 

instruction. Neither had it the mechanics necessary 
for the upkeep of training planes nor schools in which 
to train them. It had to begin at the beginning in all 
these things, and it had to develop industries and 
establish schools and prepare fields and train fliers all 
at the same time. One could not wait upon another 
phase lest the final result be delayed. 

Nineteen months later, when the armistice was 
signed, the two small and poorly equipped flying 
fields had increased to thirty-six in the United States 
and seventeen in France, preparing students for all 
of the demands of aerial warfare. The sixty-five of- 
ficers had multiplied to 10,300 flying men and there 
were 5,460 cadets in training and almost ready to 
be added to the number of those in the air, while there 
were nearly 8,000 officers in the non-flying divisions 
of the service, which contained also 133,600 enlisted 
men, trained for their specialized work. Within a 
year and a half the Air Service had been expanded 
from a beginning of little consequence to a size great- 
er than that of the army in the years before the war 
and all of it had been trained in the technique of a 
new branch of warfare. In the production of air- 
craft and accessories 200,000 men and women were 
engaged, nearly all of whom had been trained for this 
skill-demanding work. There had been produced 
over 12,000 air and sea planes, more than 1,000 bal- 
loons and 31,800 aviation engines. During the last 
month of the war production, which had then reached 
a quantity basis, had mounted to the rate of 1,500 
planes and 5,000 engines per month. 



CHAPTER XVI 

PROVIDING THE MEANS 

SPRUCE and fir production in the forests of the 
Northwest for airplane stock was at once pushed 
forward. I. W. W. agitators endeavored to incite the 
men of the logging camps to cease work, disable ma- 
chinery and injure stock. But they were driven 
away, the loggers and lumbermen of the district 
formed a Loyal Legion which was assisted by 30,000 
enlisted men sent to the Northwest for this purpose, 
and production was increased to unprecedented fig- 
ures. The output previously had never exceeded two 
and a half million feet per month. By the end of 
hostilities it had reached 25,000,000 feet per month 
and was still increasing in the effort to reach the goal, 
as it would have done very shortly, of a million feet 
per day. 

To make this possible several railroads had to be 
located, the right-of-way cleared and graded and the 
roads built, all within a few months. One of them, 
reaching into two fine spruce districts, had thirty- 
seven miles of main line and twenty-three of spurs. 
The gravel for the ballasting of its tracks, nearly 
5,000 carloads, had to be transported for a hundred 
miles. Part of the right-of-way had first to be 
cleared by hand power of huge trees amounting to 
a million feet of lumber per acre while other por- 

143 



144 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

tions were covered by thickets so dense they were 
impenetrable except as opening was made with axes. 
Half a dozen or more other lines penetrated far into 
the vast spruce and fir forests of the Northwest. 
Sawmills were built, great warehouses were con- 
structed and all the cities of the West and Northwest 
were searched for the enormous necessary equipment 
of shovels, scrapers, picks, axes, tools of many kinds, 
steam shovels, pile drivers, horses. Substantial 
camps were built to house comfortably the thousands 
of workmen. A kiln-drying plant was erected to in- 
sure proper drying of the wood and economize freight 
charges upon the stock. 

A total of 174,000,000 feet of spruce and fir was 
shipped out for airplane manufacture, of which a 
large part went to our co-belligerents. It was, in- 
deed, seven months after our entrance into the war 
before any of it was sent to American factories, the 
Inter- Allied War Council thus directing the supply 
across the ocean because the need for airplanes was 
very great and they could be more quickly made and 
sent to the front in this way. Not until more spruce 
was produced than was necessary to satisfy their 
urgent need was any of it sent to our own factories. 
By November, 1918, enough spruce was being shipped 
out of the Northwest to meet the needs of all the as- 
sociated nations. 

For wing covering of airplanes linen had formerly 
been thought necessary, but the supply of linen was 
practically exhausted and there was none for the air- 
planes we must build. The Western Allies had been 
experimenting upon cotton materials for some time 
but had thus far produced nO' fabric possessing the 
necessary strength. A substitute for linen for the 



PROVIDING THE MEANS 145 

wing coverings of our airplanes was an absolute neces- 
sity. American chemists and members of the Signal 
Corps had already been working upon a series of ex- 
periments upon cotton fabrics and they presently de- 
vised a method of treatment that made them as good 
as linen for this purpose and thereafter this substi- 
tute was used by both our war associates and our- 
selves. When the armistice was signed 1,200,000 
yards of this material were being manufactured and 
treated per month. Castor oil was necessary for the 
lubrication of airplane engines, but the world 's avail- 
able supply was barely sufficient for the planes of our 
war associates and we would have to grow the beans 
and make the oil for the engines of our own planes. 
Castor beans for seed were rushed from India and 
planted by the thousand acres and machinery installed 
for crushing the beans and refining the oil. In the 
meantime, chemical experiments were being made for 
the purpose of discovering or devising a substitute. 
They were finally successful and an oil was produced 
that was equally good for all except the rotary type 
of engine. 

Not only had the production of airplanes and en- 
gines to be provided for but a great variety of acces- 
sories of which the country had none was equally 
necessary. The aviators needed special clothing and 
equipment; for the battle planes there had to be 
mechanism synchronizing their machine-gun and pro- 
peller action, new kinds of ammunition, bombs and 
bomb accessories specialized for air combat ; planes 
of all kinds had to be equipped with many kinds of 
gauges, meters and other instruments requiring the 
most delicate and exact work in their manufacture, 
and necessary also were cameras for air use and 



146 THE FiaHTING FORCES 

camera guns for training purposes. The manufac- 
ture of all these and many other accessories had to 
be instituted and rushed forward and, because of the 
shortage in skilled labor and the need for it in so 
many kinds of war production at the same time, 
workers had frequently to be trained for the making 
of them. At the end of hostilities between three and 
four hundred manufacturing concerns, employing 
over 200,000 skilled workers, were supplying the vari- 
ous needs of this highly specialized branch of war- 
fare. 

While this preparation and development were go- 
ing on ground schools and flying fields for the train- 
ing of the personnel of the Air Service were being 
planned and built. For the study of airplane en- 
gines and of the elements of aviation and for mili- 
tary training arrangements were made with universi- 
ties and technical institutions in various parts of the 
country and within a few weeks after the declaration 
of war young men were at work in *' ground schools" 
at eight of these institutions. 

This first step in the training required eight weeks 
and when the first students to be graduated from it 
were ready for primary instruction in flying the land 
for some of the flying fields had been acquired and 
tents set up. Here, under primitive conditions, they 
began their work, and kept it up while the fields were 
being developed underneath the wings of their planes. 
Construction proceeded rapidly and in a few months 
every one had its comfortable barracks for the cadets 
and men of the squadrons, shower baths, lecture build- 
ings, mess halls, officers' quarters, long rows of han- 
gars for the housing of the planes, and all the usual 
structures of a large cantonment planned and built 



PROVIDINa THE MEANS 147 

according to the principles of sanitary engineering 
and provided with telephone, electric lighting, water, 
sewage and garbage disposal systems. One of these 
fields, representative of them all, although they varied 
in size, with its hangars, machine shops, machine- 
gun ranges, landing fields, fire department and its 
many buildings, covered five square miles^ — more than 
3,000 acres. As the system of training was evolved 
the fields were specialized and each one was developed 
according to the purposes for which it was used. In 
all, thirty-six flying fields were built in the United 
States, while in France several great air instruction 
centers, one of them the largest in the world, compris- 
ing in all seventeen fields, were prepared and in use 
when the war came to its sudden end. 

America's war associates had developed a multi- 
plicity of types of both planes and engines, with much 
resulting loss of economy both in production and in 
the training of the fliers to operate them and of the 
mechanics necessary for their upkeep. Profiting by 
this mistake, the Air Service of the United States 
endeavored to simplify types. The primary need was 
a standardized, high-powered motor that could be 
produced in quantity. Two or three engineers de- 
voted themselves to this problem, working out in a 
few weeks the Liberty Motor, which proved to be a 
signal contribution to air warfare and to the possi- 
bilities of peace time aeronautics. It soon demon- 
strated its worth for all except the light pursuit 
plane and won the highest praise from our own air- 
men and from those of England, France and Italy. 
By the time it was ready for manufacture battle front 
needs had begun to indicate the necessity for a still 
higher horsepower and the making of these compli- 



148 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

cated changes delayed its completion. The first con- 
tract for its manufacture was signed early in Septem- 
ber, 1917, and when the "cease firing" order was 
passed along the battle lines over 15,000 had been 
turned out and quantity production at a rate of 2,000 
per month had been reached, while 16,000 motors of 
other types brought the total to 31,800. The month 
of October had seen a total production of 5,600 air- 
plane motors. 

Advising with the air service officials of England, 
France and Italy, it was decided that this country 
could render the most efficient aid by specializing in 
battle and observation planes, rather than by attempt- 
ing to produce all of the several kinds into which the 
developments of air warfare were specializing air- 
plane uses. The types of foreign planes selected for 
these services had to undergo a certain amount of 
alteration to fit them for the Liberty motor and for 
other reasons, but when production began it proceeded 
rapidly, and over 3,000 were built, together with a 
large quantity of spare parts for repairs. Other 
types were being adapted to the American engine, 
which was considered the best engine for these planes, 
and new designs were being developed when the armi- 
stice was signed, and all of these would very soon 
have been in quantity production. American design- 
ers had been spurred to high pressure effort by the 
needs of the country and among the planes ready 
for testing, or already tested, approved and ready 
for manufacture, were several embodying original 
ideas that would have made them highly efficient as 
fighting planes. One of these was so simplified for 
the purpose of speedy production that it required but 



PROVIDING THE MEANS 149 

one-tentli the number of parts of the ordinary service 
plane of European design. 

The first necessity of our plane production was for 
training purposes, of which we had hitherto made 
only those for primary instruction. Deliveries of 
improved models of these planes began in June, 1917, 
but those for advanced instruction required longer 
for their manufacture. At the end of hostilities more 
than 8,000 had been provided. In a year and a half 
an airplane manufacturing industry had been de- 
veloped and a total of nearly 12,000 planes had been 
produced, together with a large quantity of spare 
parts of every type, and there were orders outstand- 
ing for service planes to be ready for early delivery 
aggregating a value of $125,000,000. 

In addition to the means for training flying men, 
there had to be provided a series of schools for the 
training of the non-flying officers and men of the Air 
Service. Engineer officers to direct the upkeep of the 
equipment, supply officers to keep it on hand in suf- 
ficient quantities, and adjutants to have charge of 
the records were all essential to the Air Service. All 
had to have a certain amount of training and, at first, 
schools were provided for each of these special needs. 
Schools or courses of instruction had also to be in- 
stituted for aerial photography, for radio work, for 
armament and compass officers. Another series of 
schools for mechanics was necessary in order to train 
men for the fifty or more trades necessary in the re- 
pair and supply shops of flying fields. Much of the 
work was new to American mechanics and demanded 
the greatest skill, care and delicacy of execution and 
in schools for this purpose intensive training was 



150 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

given to them as rapidly as they could be secured. 
Many of these mechanics had also to be sent overseas, 
at the request of our co-belligerents, for service in 
their factories and flying fields, in addition to those 
who went to work in our own flying fields in France. 



CHAPTER XVII 

TRAINING THE MEN 

GREAT as was the problem this country faced in 
the spring of 1917 on the material side of the 
creation of a new branch of warfare in the American 
Army— the construction of fields and planes, the de- 
velopment of industries and the procuring of skilled 
labor — even greater was the problem of working out a 
new system of training. We are accustomed to the 
creation of new industries and certain nuclei already 
existed around which this new one could be formed. 
We had trained a few civilians and soldiers to fly, 
but we had not trained an aviator, and had no means 
of training even one, for usefulness on the battle 
front. And we were urged to send overseas at the 
earliest possible moment 5,000 aviators schooled in the 
developments and the specialties which nearly three 
years of the hot-house growth of war aeronautics had 
brought about. 

The British, French and Italian Governments de- 
tailed to this country, upon our appeal, a few expert 
fliers and teachers of flying to aid in the early de- 
velopment of our effort and cadets were sent from the 
United States to the flying fields of Canada, England, 
France and Italy to hasten their training. Some of 
these joined the flying forces of those countries and 
others returned after a few months to become in- 

151 



152 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

structors at our own hastily established fields. The 
few civilians and army men who had learned flying 
in pre-war days were at once set to work as instruc- 
tors at the primary fields. The most apt of the 
American cadets, of whom many took to flying as do 
birds of the air and quickly became expert, were used 
as instructors at the home fields instead of being sent 
overseas for service. And so finally an expert and 
capable instruction personnel was built up and a sys- 
tem of instruction evolved that represents a work of 
such diligence, ingenuity, resource and enthusiastic 
and incessant effort as to make it one of the many 
memorable achievements of the war. 

At the beginning of the evolution of the training 
system it was necessary to organize medical boards 
to pronounce upon the physical fitness of candidates. 
The requirements were rigid and the work was new 
and therefore the highest available medical skill must 
be obtained. Fifty or more of these boards were es- 
tablished and in the first year examined nearly 40,000 
men, of whom almost half were unable to pass the 
severe tests. As the months went on, experience de- 
veloped the methods of determining the applicant's 
physical fitness for flying to a remarkable degree of 
efficiency. The American system of training diverged 
somewhat, at its very beginning, from that of other 
nations, since it demanded a higher degree of scholas- 
tic attainment, a collegiate degree or a certain amount 
of collegiate work being a requisite, as it was believed 
that the mental development thus obtained would en- 
able the student flier to advance more rapidly. As the 
system was finally developed, the candidate who had 
passed successfully the initial physical test had first 
a month of military training at a camp devoted solely 




Airplane Ambulance 




American Flying Field in France 



TRAINING THE MEN 153 

to this work to give him due regard for discipline and 
for accuracy of statement in the making of reports, 
to inspire him with military morale and to give to his 
body and spirit a thorough testing in order that those 
who should fall short under its severe demands might 
be sifted out at the beginning. 

Then came two months in a ground school, of which 
there were eight located in as many universities and 
technical schools in different parts of the country, 
where the cadet, under military discipline, received 
practical and theoretical training in the study of 
motors, airplane construction and other elements of 
aviation. By means of long hours and close applica- 
tion the young men did as much work during the two 
months spent at these schools as they would ordinarily 
have covered during an academic year. The next 
step was training at a field for primary flying under 
the dual control system and practice in solo flying 
until the cadet could pass the requisite tests which 
permitted him to be graduated as a Reserve Military 
Aviator, with the rank of second lieutenant. Then 
he passed on to other fields where he was taught ad- 
vanced flying, acrobatics, night flying, formation fly- 
ing and aerial gunnery, and afterward to a specialized 
field where he qualified to be a pursuit pilot and fly 
and fight his own machine, or to be a bombing or an 
observation pilot, or to do reconnoissance or photo- 
graphic work. 

At the close of hostilities fields for every specialty 
had been constructed and equipped and the system 
of training was receiving its final development in the 
establishment of brigades at a large flying center 
where the men were formed into squadrons, trained 
for work together and sent overseas as a flying unit. 



154 THE FiaHTING FORCES 

The signing of the armistice found one such great cen- 
ter, ranking among the largest plants the United 
States had constructed for the prosecution of the 
war, almost completed, its several cooperating fields 
able to handle over 7,000 men at a time and turn out 
a steady weekly installment of air squadrons, each with 
its eighteen flying officers, five ground officers and 150 
service, supply, construction and repair men, trained, 
organized and ready for the final two or three weeks 
of experience at the flying fields overseas before being 
sent to the front. 

The system of training thus worked out had been 
evolved in the face of many difficulties. There were 
no text-books, no traditions, no bodies of accepted 
rules and methods. As finally developed, it was mod- 
eled somewhat on the British system, with important 
modifications and differences. But the passing 
months saw in it, as it evolved, many and sometimes 
striking changes. It was constantly in a fiuid state, 
subject to the results of experiment and of observa- 
tion upon the cadets in training, to the conclusions of 
instructors and field commanders after comparison of 
experience, and to the evolving ideas of scores of air 
service men. And especially was it subject to the 
information, suggestions and orders that came back 
from the battle front in France, where air warfare 
was being shaped daily and weekly by war conditions 
and demands into new methods and new develop- 
ments. And the training on these fields four thou- 
sand miles away had to be kept closely in touch with 
these constant developments and imperious needs and 
its methods and aims changed from day to day, if 
necessary, to meet the requirements. 

By experiment, observation, steady thinking at high 



TRAINING THE MEN 155 

pressure and comparison of ideas on the part of every 
instructor, every officer and every cadet at every 
field, methods of instruction were hammered out for 
each phase of the work. Each field brought its offer- 
ing of daily experience and almost every flight con- 
tributed something to the accumulation of facts out 
of which grew, finally, some surety of knowledge. 
Into the development of methods flowed a steady 
stream ef ideas, discoveries, experiences and experi- 
ments, and so day by day the American system of 
training grew to better results and higher efficiency. 
Text-books, for the most part, were type-written or 
mimeographed accounts of results that had been 
gained the month, or the week, or the day before by 
following certain methods, with comments and sug- 
gestions as to their use. 

Many contributions of value to the general theory 
and practice of training for flying were made by these 
enthusiastic young men who toiled unceasingly over 
the problems set by our training fields. One young 
lieutenant, while studying the causes of airplane acci- 
dents and trying to find some means of preventing 
them, worked out a series of exercises which reproduce 
the positions that must be taken in advanced flying 
and so enable the cadet early in his work to find out 
whether or not he is physically unfit to undertake 
acrobatic work and also give him a measure of 
preparation for it. Experiment showed that the mo- 
tion picture film had possibilities for the flying in- 
structor and when hostilities ended it had been drawn 
into the system of training and was beginning to be 
used to hasten and to make safer the cadet's progress. 
Sitting safely in his chair, he watched whirling hori- 
zons, skies and landscapes, pictured from an airplane 



156 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

going througli one acrobatic performance after an- 
other, noting the varving appearances of the pictures 
and his own sensations, and so having his nervous sys- 
tem educated in advance for what he would have to 
undergo, learning in time whether or not it would 
unduly affect him and gaining quickly and without 
danger valuable experience. An important develop- 
ment, worked out and used at American flying fields, 
was a series of tests of the flier's physical ability to 
endure high altitudes. Observation showed that acci- 
dents sometimes were the result of inability to endure 
rarefied atmosphere and by placing the student in a 
tightly closed room, gradually exhausting the oxygen 
and noting his reactions it was speedily determined 
whether or not it was safe for him to attempt high 
flights, either with or without a device for supplying 
him with oxygen. 

The flight surgeon, specialized out of the army 
medical officer, was one of the early developments of 
training for air warfare and soon also there appeared, 
first devised and used at an American field, the fly- 
ing ambulance, which enabled him and his assistants 
to go at once to the help of an injured airman, give 
him first aid and bring him back in the fuselage of 
the ambulance plane to the hospital. The end of 
hostilities saw at least one flight surgeon at every avi- 
ation training field in this country and several at each 
of the large ones. And there had been established a 
division of flight surgeons for which medical officers 
could receive a special course under the direction of 
the Medical Research Board of the Surgeon General's 
Office. The flight surgeon's duty was to keep every 
aviator under observation, to examine each one phys- 
ically before and after flying, to note the effects of 



TRAINING THE MEN 157 

flight, especially at high altitudes, to determine how 
frequently he should fly and to discover whether or 
not he had physical peculiarities which would unfit 
him for any special kind of air service. To aid in this 
work, which was producing remarkable results in the 
way of both efficiency and safety, there had been es- 
tablished at many of the flying fields research labora- 
tories which worked out new tests and special and in- 
genious apparatus for using them and made examina- 
tions and observations of the airmen in training. 
Associated with the work of the flight surgeon was 
that of the athletic instructors who, toward the end 
of the war period, were appointed for service at the 
flying fields. They were former college athletes and 
athletic instructors who had received special training 
for the work of keeping the student aviators in the 
best possible physical condition. 

These phases of the system of training that was 
worked out at American fields aimed to lessen the 
chances of accident and to gain greater speed and 
efficiency in the progress of the cadets. Throughout 
the war period the United States made a much greater 
effort to lessen the casualties of training than did any 
other nation. A longer period of work under dual 
control and more knowledge and skill before the cadet 
began solo flying were demanded by our system of 
training than other nations thought necessary. This 
and other provisions for the safety of the cadets made 
our training casualties less than half those of any 
other nation among our war associates. The record 
of American flying field casualties showed 278 fliers 
killed in training, an average of one to each 236,800 
miles flown by cadets. 

The system of training had not only to produce men 



158 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

for work in the air. It had also to train large num- 
bers for a great variety of work necessary to sus- 
tain and cooperate with the flying fighters and ob- 
servers. In addition to unskilled labor, fifty-two 
trades and occupations are essential to the aviation 
service and men had to be either wholly or partially 
trained in each of them. At first, in order to secure 
skilled men with the utmost speed, mechanics were 
sent in detachments to a great number of factories 
where special training was given them and afterward, 
as experience began to disclose what would be needed, 
carefully worked out courses of training were es- 
tablished in nearly a dozen different schools. Gov- 
ernment schools giving thorough training, in opera- 
tion at the end of the first year of war, were gradu- 
ating 5,000 mechanics every three months. Aerial 
photography had developed during the war to an 
exact science, but when we entered the conflict very 
little was known about it in the United States. In- 
struction in it was of a threefold character, for ob- 
servers had to learn how to operate cameras in an 
airplane, intelligence officers on the ground had to be 
instructed in the interpretation of the results and en- 
listed men to be taught to do the developing, print- 
ing, and enlarging and to keep the equipment in con- 
dition. Schools for training in all these things soon 
produced the necessary instructors for the flying fields 
where training in aerial photography was given. 

It was a complicated and difficult problem that the 
United States faced when it undertook to work out a 
system of air training while it was training the men 
for air service. But within a year and a half it had 
evolved an efficient system that set higher standards 
than did other nations and also better safeguarded 



TRAINING THE MEN 159 

tlie lives of the men in training, and while doing this 
it had sent overseas 4,776 trained flying officers, had 
as many more at home fields, and had in training at 
home more than 5,000 cadets, of whom nearly half 
were in advanced stages of the work. In the final 
test of service at the front the men who had been 
trained by that system received for their ability, 
skill and deeds the heartiest and highest praise. 



CHAPTER XYIII 

THE BALLOON CORPS 

THE division of ballooning gave important service, 
althougli it also had to be developed from a con- 
dition of little consequence. The few balloons of all 
types possessed by both the Army and the Navy were 
a small fraction of the number that would be needed. 
The balloon force consisted of eight officers and sixty 
enlisted men. The only school for ballooning had 
been rescued from complete abandonment a few 
months before we entered the war, but it had accom- 
modations for only fifteen officers and 400 men, while 
its equipment was both obsolete and meager. A pro- 
gram of expansion in the balloon service was institu- 
ted and carried out that, in proportion, was com- 
parable with that of the airplane service. "Within a 
year and a half both Army and Navy were well 
supplied with all of the various types of balloons 
and up and down the coasts of the United States and 
of France and over our troops in the battle lines 
floated observation balloons manned by eagle-eyed 
watchers, dirigibles were aiding the coast patrols of 
both shores of the Atlantic and helping to escort 
troop and supply ships through the danger zone, kite 
balloons were giving constant and valuable service 
and balloons for the scattering of propaganda on and 
behind the enemy lines were undermining the morale 
of troops and peoples. 

160 



THE BALLOON COEPS 161 

For training purposes the one existing school was 
modernized and enlarged and others were opened, 
great rubber plants revived the balloon making art, 
and at the end of hostilities the Army had over 1,000 
and the Navy 300 balloons — dirigible, semi-dirigible, 
supply, target and kite — and the Balloon Corps of 
the Army contained more than 700 fully trained of- 
ficers and 16,000 enlisted men, organized into 100 
companies, of which 25 were in the battle zone. Plans 
were then under way to continue the expansion at an 
increased rate, for developments at the front were con- 
stantly making more useful the balloon of every type. 
To comply with this overseas need arrangements had 
been completed to increase the Balloon Corps by 1,200 
officers and 25,000 men. 

One of the most important scientific developments 
of the war was the result of the endeavor of the 
American Air Service to find a non-inflammable gas 
for balloons. Investigation and experiment by the 
United States Bureau of Mines found a new source 
for helium in a natural gas field in the Southwest, 
from which it could be produced so cheaply as to make 
possible its use for this purpose. Up to that time 
no more than a few hundred cubic feet had ever been 
obtained and its value was $1,700 per cubic foot. 
When the war ended 150,000 cubic feet of helium for 
balloon inflation had been shipped and plants were 
under construction that would produce 50,000 cubic 
feet per day at a cost of about ten cents per foot. 
As a helium filled balloon could not be destroyed by 
incendiary bullets it would be comparatively safe 
from enemy attacks and could carry on over the 
enemy lines operations of the greatest importance. 
Both the American and British governments had per- 



162 THE FIGHTINQ FORCES 

f ected tlieir plans, when the armistice was signed, to 
use many dirigibles thus filled in air attacks from 
which immense quantities of bombs would have been 
dropped over strategic points in Germany. 

Because of the assurance of safety which this non- 
inflammable gas gives to balloon operations, the use- 
fulness of all balloons, but especially of the dirigible 
type, has been enormously increased and a new era 
opened for their service. Working upon the problem 
of making it possible to send propaganda balloons 
upon long journeys over the enemy's country, the 
meteorological service developed ingenious types of 
balloons that did remarkable work of that kind dur- 
ing the last months of war and, in addition, give 
promise of very great usefulness for the days of 
peace. 



CHAPTER XIX 

FLYING IN FRANCE 

SEVENTEEN large flying fields, divided into seven 
or more air instruction centers, one of which was 
the largest in the world, were developed in France 
for the partial training or final grooming of the men 
who had already received part or nearly complete 
preparation at the home fields. During the first year 
of the war 50,000 enlisted men were sent overseas to 
rush, forward the preparations for our air forces. 
Most of them went to France, where they made ready 
the big flying fields at the instruction centers, built 
assembly depots for American-made planes and, later 
on, aerodromes near the front. Others were formed 
into service squadrons and trained in England and 
France, in order to lessen the pressure upon our 
hastily developed facilities for such, training, and 
were held in readiness for work with American pilots. 
Still others took the places in factories of French and 
English workers in order to release those who were 
more highly skilled for specialized work on airplanes 
and their accessories. 

Hardly six weeks after the entrance of the United 
States into the war cadets began sailing for France 
for training at the French flying fields, in order to 
get our flying men upon the front at the earliest 
possible date. Within a year 2,500 young American 

163 



164 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

cadets had gone across the ocean or to Canada to 
seek instruction at French, English, Italian and 
Canadian flying schools. But the Allied nations 
found it impossible, under the staggering blows they 
were suffering, to furnish as many training planes 
as they had planned and many of these young men 
were not able to become effective at the front for 
a long time. But by the spring of 1918 some five 
hundred trained American aviators, organized in 
thirteen American squadrons, were working with the 
British and French airmen at the front. 

It was early in May, 1918, that the first German 
airplane fell a victim to an American airman in the 
American service. In that month also the first planes 
from home were received by the American Expedi- 
tionary Forces and early in August the first complete 
American squadron with American built and 
equipped airplanes and working with the American 
Army crossed the German lines. 

From various sources, including over 2,600 pur- 
suit, observation and bombing planes furnished by 
the French Government to aid in the speedy equip- 
ment of our fighting forces, the American Army in 
France at the end of the war had a total of over 
10,000 planes for pursuit, bombing, reconnoissance, 
experiment and training purposes. The United States 
had shipped overseas nearly 2,000 service planes and 
over 1,300 of these were at or supporting the front. 
In the battle zone at the signing of the armistice the 
American Air Service had 2,160 officers and 22,350 
men, in the service of supply were 4,640 officers and 
28,350 soldiers, while detailed with the French and 
British forces were 57 officers and 520 soldiers, mak- 
ing a total air strength of over 6,800 officers and 51,- 



FLYING IN FRANCE 165 

200 men. Witli the Frencli army there were regiments 
of air service mechanics including 100 officers and 
4,700 enlisted men. Under instruction at the fields 
and within two or three weeks of readiness for service 
at the front were pilots for pursuit, observation, and 
day and night bombing and observers, including ar- 
tillery and day and night bombing, numbering all 
told a little over 2,000. 

Previous to the time when America became an im- 
portant factor in air operations, during the late sum- 
mer and autumn of 1918, superior power in the air 
had wavered back and forth between the opposing 
forces. American built planes and American fliers 
added to the Allied forces the air power necessary 
to insure supremacy. More and more important dur- 
ing the last year of the war had become bombing 
operations from the air and the United States had 
been asked to specialize for bombing and reconnois- 
sance work in both plane production and training of 
personnel. American air work was therefore largely 
of this kind and its contribution to the final defeat of 
the enemy, both in the destruction of enemy troops 
and material and in the undermining of morale, was 
of very considerable importance. 

How important it was considered by our war asso- 
ciates is shown by the unstinted praise they gave to 
the ability, the skill and the daring of the American 
flying men. For their valor and achievements four 
hundred of those men received decorations. Over 
sixty of them were ^'aces" — that is, had received of- 
ficial credit for the bringing down of ^Ye enemy 
planes. The premier ''ace" had twenty-six planes 
to his credit and the next highest had eighteen. Al- 
together, American fliers accounted for 491 enemy 



166 THE FIGHTINa FORCES 

planes whose destruction or capture was confirmed 
by the very strict evidence required before official 
credit for them was given and 354 others were re- 
ported without this official confirmation. Of enemy 
balloons the destruction of eighty-two was reported, 
of which fifty-seven had official confirmation. The 
American forces lost forty-five balloons and 271 air- 
planes. Therefore the American Air Service at the 
front destroyed more than three times as many planes 
as it lost and almost twice as many balloons. Among 
the flying men there were 554 casualties, of whom 
171 were killed in action. 



CHAPTER XX 

AMERICAN CONTRIBUTIONS 

AS a part of the American effort for effective 
prosecution of the war in the air, American 
skill, ingenuity, knowledge and determination in re- 
search solved some problems in air navigation and 
air fighting that will be contributions as important 
to aeronautics in peace time as they were in war, 
when they helped to turn the tide of battle against 
the enemy. The account of American achievement in 
the delivery of telling strokes would hardly be com- 
plete without a summary of these developments, dis- 
coveries and new applications of facts or methods al- 
ready known. 

Of great importance was the devising of the Lib- 
erty Motor, which met a keenly felt need for a high- 
powered engine for use in battle and observation 
planes and also made possible rapid production of 
motors in large quantities. Not only did this aid 
our war associates and hasten our own progress to- 
ward making our influence decisive at the front but 
it will have an important influence upon the com- 
mercial future of the airplane. 

The discovery of a method for obtaining helium in 
large quantities at a low cost from natural gas will 
have results of the highest consequence for air navi- 
gation. Being non-inflammable it makes the dirigible 

167 



168 THE FIGHTING FOECES 

a safe means of transport by air and so greatly in- 
creases the possibilities of long distance flights above 
both oceans and continents. The propaganda bal- 
loons devised by the meteorological and other serv- 
ices of the United States were most useful in the dis- 
semination of information in enemy countries, where 
the results were important in the undermining of 
morale. They also make possible the mapping of the 
air highways across the Atlantic and the observation 
of air temperatures and air currents — a service which 
will be of so much importance to the future of avia- 
tion that it can not yet be estimated. 

The ingenuity and resourcefulness which found a 
means of treating cotton fabric to make it as good as 
linen for the covering of airplane wings made a con- 
tribution of signal value to American effort in the 
war, for without it our air program would have been 
completely balked. Other nations had attempted to 
solve the same problem and had devised cotton sub- 
stitutes for linen, but none of them had proved equal 
to the strain which airplane wings must bear. The 
American process gave a substitute as good as linen, 
and better in some respects, and it has already proved 
a contribution of very great value to the building of 
airplanes for commercial purposes, for it simplifies 
the obtaining of raw material and lessens the cost of 
production. 

Many problems connected with work in the air were 
under study by scientific experts in the army service 
when the armistice was signed and many smaller 
problems had been solved and contributions of less 
value had been made. Among them was the de- 
vising of a new and improved compass for air use; 
the developing of new and more serviceable cameras 



AMERICAN CONTRIBUTIONS 169 

for airplanes; the construction of a leak-proof tank 
for airplanes which lessens the dangers of flying; the 
devising of several kinds of ingenious signaling lamps 
for both day and night use. Several new types of 
planes were developed under the urgency of the 
country's needs that make important aeronautical 
advances. 

One of the most important of all the airplane im- 
provements of the entire war was the developing and 
the successful application by members of the Bureau 
of Aircraft Production to American airplanes of the 
radio telephone. It made possible voice communi- 
cation between planes in the air and between the 
ground and the planes. For some time before the 
armistice was signed squadrons of American planes 
at the front were being maneuvered and fought by 
radio telephone and German orders had been insist- 
ent that an American plane thus equipped should be 
shot down and brought to the rear for examination. 
Important for war purposes as was this development, 
the result of months of investigation and experiment, 
its possibilities and its value for peace time uses 
are even greater. 

Although not completed in time for war use, an 
invention for the control and direction by wireless 
from the air of boats and torpedoes in the water and 
of airplanes from the ground was mainly developed 
under the spur of war needs and its promise was high 
for decisive war usefulness, as it is also for peace- 
time purposes. 

To create a new industry and bring it into quantity 
production ; to work out a method of instruction and 
training; to train thousands of fliers in all the spe- 
cialized branches of flying to a high degree of skill; 



170 THE FIGHTING FORCES 

to train the tens of thousands of mechanics necessary 
for the upkeep and supply of a large aviation serv- 
ice; to bring that service up from a point of utter 
negligibility to a state of such efficiency and impor- 
tance that it gave aid of high value on the Western 
front; and during the same time to make contribu- 
tions of the highest consequence to air navigation — 
that is the summing up of America's achievement in 
the air, in a year and a half, for the prosecution of 
the war. 



PART TWO 
THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 



CHAPTER XXI 

FINANCING THE WAR 

STATISTICS of financial operations usually make 
dull and dreary reading for all who are not pro- 
fessional financiers. But every figure in the financing 
of our share in the great war glows with interest. 
For it is illumined by the high flame of patriotism 
and the eager wish to serve the needs and the ideals 
of the nation that animated the whole people. The 
story of the financing of the war is the story of the 
enthusiastic giving by young and old, rich and poor, 
high and lowly, all over the country, of all that their 
government asked in such overflowing measure as far 
exceeded its requests. Willingly they took up the 
heavy burden of increased taxes and gladly they car- 
ried to triumphant success four huge loans of gov- 
ernment bonds, thus providing an enormous reservoir 
of credit that enabled the government to pay its 
mountainous bills, to give a helping hand to other 
nations, to bend all its energies to the prosecution 
of the war, and to carry the country over from a 
peace to a war basis without shock or financial dis- 
turbance. 

The total cost of the war to the United States, 
down to the signing of the armistice, was, in round 
numbers, something over $21,000,000,000. The un- 

173 



174 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

avoidable continiiation for a period of the expenses 
of the war establishment will have added $10,205,000,- 
000 to that sum by the end of June, 1919, and the 
complete return of the country to a peace basis will 
somewhat increase that sum. However, a consider- 
able portion, probably more than one-quarter, will be 
reclaimed from values gained or salvaged from the 
properties in which it was invested. Loans to the 
nations associated with us in the war, of which ten 
asked for credits, amounted, at the cessation of hos- 
tilities, to $8,000,000,000, and were increased by 
$2,000,000,000 more during the next six months. 
That sum will in time be removed from the country's 
net war expenditure. But $21,000,000,000 in excess 
of the nation's usual outlay for the carrying on of 
its governmental affairs had to be raised quickly and, 
for the most part, expended as soon as collected. The 
plan of the Government for financing the war pro- 
vided for the raising of approximately one-third of 
this sum by taxation and from customs duties and 
other usual sources and the remainder by bonds and 
certificates maturing in from five to thirty years. 
Therefore the entire cost of the war will be bom 
practically by those now living who as mature per- 
sons have been a part of it or who as children have 
witnessed or aided the work for it of their elders. 

Accustomed hardly at all to direct taxation, the 
people nevertheless took up readily a war burden of 
income and excess profits taxes far heavier than any- 
thing they had ever dreamed of before. For the first 
time in their lives millions of people were called upon 
to make direct contributions to the, support of the 
Federal Government. The sum of $3,694,000,000 
raised by direct taxation was the largest tax ever paid 



FINANCING THE WAR 175 

by any country and represented a larger proportion 
of the nation's war budget than any other belligerent 
engaged in the great war had been able to defray 
from tax revenues. About seven-eighths of this sum 
came from taxes on income and excess profits and the 
remainder from taxes on liquors and tobacco. Only 
about $22,000,000 of the revenue from incomes was 
paid by those having incomes of $3,000 or less, the 
bulk of it coming from large fortunes and excess 

profits. 

The story of the four great Liberty Loans that 
preceded the signing of the armistice can never be 
adequately written. It is regrettable that it cannot 
be told in all its richness of enthusiasm and desire to 
be of service, its hard and willing work, and its 
lavish outpouring of money from men, women and 
children of every economic class and social condi- 
tion who thus proved their determination to support 
the men in khaki who had gone overseas to maintain 
the integrity and uphold the ideals of the American 
Union. For if it could be told in all that fullness it 
would be one of those great stories of humanity that 
for centuries retain their vital spark and their power 
to thrill and inspire. A flame of passionate purpose 
swept the country and caught into its burning ardor 
almost every home in the land, whether on isolated 
farms, in remote mountain valleys, in thriving towns, 
on poor city streets, or on mansion-lined avenues. 
The nation asked the people to buy, in the four loans, 
a total of $14,000,000,000 worth of bonds, and they 
over-subscribed even this vast amount by $4,800,000,- 
000. It was by far the greatest financial achievement 
ever carried through by any nation in response to 
appeals to its people. 



176 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

The First Liberty Loan took place in May and 
June, 1917, when subscriptions were asked for bonds 
to the value of $2,000,000,000. There was an over- 
subscription of more than fifty per cent, amounting, 
in round numbers, to $1,035,000,000. But as the issue 
was limited to the amount offered none of the over- 
subscriptions could be taken. There were over 
4,000,000 individual subscriptions, of which ninety- 
nine per cent were for amounts ranging from $50 to 
$10,000. There were only twenty-one subscriptions 
for amounts of $5,000,000 and over, and they aggre- 
gated somewhat less than $190,000,000. 

The Second Liberty Loan occurred in October, 
1917, the amount asked for being $3,000,000,000. The 
final returns showed an oversubscription of fifty-four 
per cent, or somewhat more than $1,617,000,000, half 
of which the Treasury Department was authorized to 
accept. The loan was taken by 9,400,000 men and 
women, of whom ninety-nine per cent, subscribing in 
amounts ranging from $50 to $50,000, took nearly two 
and a half billion dollars. 

The Third Liberty Loan took place in April, 1918, 
opening on the anniversary of our entrance into the 
war, when bonds were offered to the amount of 
$3,000,000,000. These were over-subscribed by more 
than $1,158,000,000, the full amount being allotted 
by the Treasury Department. The number of sub- 
scribers was 18,300,000, of whom 18,285,000 sub- 
scribed for amounts ranging from $50 to $10,000. 

The Fourth Liberty Loan followed in October, 1918, 
the request being for $6,000,000,000. The amount 
asked for equaled the combined requests of the Sec- 
ond and the Third Loans, all three occurring within 
one year. It was the largest single loan any nation, 



FINANCING THE WAR 177 

at that time, had ever asked of its people and was 
described by the Secretary of the Treasury as "the 
greatest financial achievement of all history.'' No 
American can fail to feel that it was a privilege and 
a milestone in his life to witness and be a part of 
the patriotic fervor that carried it to a triumphant 
conclusion. The influenza epidemic that swept the 
country during the period of the loan kept many 
hundreds of thousands of people in sick-beds or sent 
them to their graves, disorganized business for many 
weeks, closed schools, churches, theaters, and all pub- 
lic assemblies in many places and everywhere inter- 
fered seriously with the progress of the campaign. 
Nevertheless, it was over-subscribed by almost $1,000,- 
000,000. More than 21,000,000 people subscribed for 
bonds, thus making, if five persons be counted to the 
family, an average of a bond for every family in the 
country. 

The rising tide of the nation's spirit was marked 
by the increase of subscribers from loan to loan. The 
number subscribing to the second loan doubled those 
to the first, and the third almost doubled those to 
the second, while the fourth made a huge leap for- 
ward of 3,000,000 subscribers beyond the third. The 
over-subscription to the Fourth Liberty Loan, all of 
which was allotted, was sixteen and a half per cent. 
As in the previous loans, the great bulk of the securi- 
ties taken was in the smaller amounts, thus proving 
the almost unlimited extent to which the mass of the 
people, of small fortune, were willing to stand behind 
the government with their savings. 

Their spirit was all the more notable because of 
the fact that the American people have never been 
accustomed to purchase government bonds and have 



178 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

never sought, in any considerable number, bond in- 
vestments of any kind. Each bond sale, with cumu- 
lative energy and enthusiasm that found their climax 
in the fourth, was made the medium of a great in- 
formative and patriotic campaign that sought to bring 
the meaning of the war, the aims and ideals of Amer- 
ica and the imperative necessity of the winning of 
the conflict as soon as possible straight home to the 
heart of every American. Hundreds of thousands of 
workers talked and sang to assemblages and to crowds 
on the streets, carried on house to house canvasses, 
received contributions at booths in hotels, banks, pub- 
lic places of every sort. Cities and towns were gay 
with posters, banners and parades and the flags of 
America and the Allies floated from poles and house- 
tops and windows. Soldiers returning from the front 
told the American people in hundreds of addresses 
why their money was needed for the men on the fight- 
ing lines. Trophies of war, captured from the enemy, 
taken over the country everywhere aroused enthu- 
siasm. Artists gave their talent and skill in the mak- 
ing of posters that had nation-wide display. Men 
and women of prominence organized meetings and 
made addresses, and societies, newspapers and press 
associations aided in many ways. During the third 
and fourth campaigns it is estimated that not less 
than 2,000,000 men and women devoted themselves 
to helping the sale of the bonds. 

The work done by the National Woman's Liberty 
Loan Committee, of which more detailed description 
is given in the chapter dealing with ''The Work of 
Yf omen for the War, ' ' deserves mention here because 
of the importance of its contribution to the success 
of the loans. When the committee was appointed by 



FINANCING THE WAR 179 

the Secretary of the Treasury in May, 1917, it was 
made independent of all other loan organizations and 
given the status of a Bureau of the United States 
Treasury. It was a unique pioneer, for it was the 
first executive committee of women in the Govern- 
ment of the United States. When it was established 
the campaign for the First Liberty Loan was already 
in full swing, but it made a beginning, produced some 
good results and then bent its energies to thorough 
organization. It had a county chairman in prac- 
tically every one of the thirty-two hundred counties 
in the United States, with 49,500 associate chairmen 
organizing subordinate units, and in cities, towns, 
villages, farming regions, mountain and desert dis- 
tricts, its members canvassed for subscriptions from 
house to house, by carriage, by motor, by horseback 
and on foot, in rain or shine, in mud or dust. In the 
Fourth Liberty Loan campaign there were nearly 
1,000,000 working members of the Woman's Commit- 
tee, every one of whom was busy as organizer, or 
canvasser, or both. In the Second Liberty Loan the 
organization was officially credited with the raising 
of $1,000,000,000 and in the Third Loan with a simi- 
lar sum, while in the Fourth the Woman's Commit- 
tee sold bonds to the amount of $1,500,000,000. The 
total contribution of the Committee to the three loans 
for which it worked was, therefore, one-fourth of 
the total asked for these three loans and only a slight- 
ly smaller proportion of the total subscriptions. 

One of the most significant factors in the financing 
of the war was the contribution of the War Savings 
Societies. For what they gave was the result of 
small economies and of a thrift for which the Ameri- 
can people have never been notable. Wasteful and 



180 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

prodigal beyond any other nation, America, asked 
to economize for the sake of her soldiers, began sav- 
ing pennies and nickels and quarters as nobody had 
ever dreamed she could, or would. The National War 
Savings Committee was appointed by the Secretary 
of the Treasury in December, 1917, and under it state, 
county, city and town committees were soon organ- 
ized. All their members began preaching and prac- 
ticing the gospel of thrift and asking men, women 
and children to save in every possible way and invest 
the results of their small savings and economies in 
thrift stamps costing twenty-five cents each. Six- 
teen of these stamps were exchangeable, with a cash 
payment of a few cents, for a war savings certificate 
redeemable in five years at a value of five dollars. 

A nation-wide campaign of education for thrift 
and economy and of organization for practical result 
enlisted the services of many men prominent in busi- 
ness affairs. During the first three months of the 
campaign more than 18,000 incorporated banks and 
trust companies agreed to become authorized agents 
for the sale of war savings securities. The work 
spread all over the country, from Alaska to Panama 
and from Hawaii to Porto Rico. By the first of No- 
vember, 1918, 150,000 "War Savings Societies had 
been organized and hundreds of thousands of work- 
ers were selling stamps and aiding in the distribution 
of literature and the work of organization. More 
than a thousand periodicals gave free space to the 
advertising of the campaign, affording, approximate- 
ly, a circulation of 55,000,000. Labor organizations 
and women's societies, schools, churches, clubs of 
many kinds, young people's organizations, the Boy 
Scouts being especially efficient, cooperated with im- 



FINANCING THE WAR 181 

portant results. Thrift literature was placed in prac- 
tically every school in the United States. The month- 
ly cash receipts from the sale of thrift and war- 
savings stamps began with $19,236,000 in December, 
1917, and increased with every month, reaching their 
highest point in the following July with $211,417,000. 
During the last ten days, of that month the receipts 
were at the rate of over $7,000,000 for every bank- 
ing day — enough to have financed the entire United 
States Government in the years before the war. 

Up to November 1, 1918, the cash receipts from 
the sales of these stamps totaled $834,253,000, repre- 
senting a maturity value of over $1,000,000,000. The 
achievements and influence of these societies were so 
remarkable and so beneficial that probably they will 
be continued and become a permanent factor in the 
finances of the nation. 

Through the Bureau of War Risk Insurance of the 
Department of the Treasury the nation made gen- 
erous provision for its fighting forces and their de- 
pendents. No other government had ever provided 
for them so liberally, nor had any other, not even ex- 
cepting our own in previous wars, gone about the 
business in so just and so scientific a manner. Estab- 
lished at the beginning of the world war to insure 
the hulls and cargoes of American vessels against 
the risks of war, the scope of the Bureau was enlarged 
after our entrance into the conflict to include the 
personnel of the merchant marine and the officers, en- 
listed men and nurses of the Army and the Navy. 
It had also in its charge the compensation awards for 
death or disability to be paid to the men of these 
services or their dependents and the payment of al- 
lotments to their families. So enormous was the work 



182 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

of the Bureau that it soon became one of the greatest 
of business enterprises and beyond question the 
largest life insurance concern in the world. It had 
written, at the end of hostilities, 4,000,000 policies 
totaling over $37,000,000,000 and equaling in amount 
the total life insurance in force at that time in all 
American companies, ordinary, industrial and fra- 
ternal, both at home and abroad. The maximum 
policy that could be taken out was for $10,000 and 
the average taken was for about $8,750. Premiums 
to the end of the year amounted to $630,000,000. At 
the signing of the armistice the Bureau was issuing 
checks for compensation awards, allotments and in- 
surance averaging a million per month in number and 
calling for the payment of a million dollars a day. It 
then had on file 30,000,000 individual insurance rec- 
ords of various kinds and, in addition, there were 
afterwards brought from France twenty-six tons of 
such records of insurance issued after the men had 
gone overseas. 

The enormous amount of work done by this Bu- 
reau was only one factor in the wartime expansion of 
the duties of the Treasury Department that brought 
about grave problems of administration. Thousands 
of new employees were needed for the vastly Increased 
work of the Internal Revenue Bureau, with its new 
phases due to the inauguration of direct personal 
taxation, and thousands more for the work of the 
War Risk Insurance Bureau, the new tasks of each 
Bureau calling for special skill. The Insurance Bu- 
reau had 13,000 employees, recruited and trained in 
a year. Other expansions made necessary still more 
thousands of workers. Office space for them and for 
the records that must be kept had to be provided, the 



FINANCING THE WAR 183 

employees liad to be found and the greater part of 
them had to be trained for their special tasks. The 
problem of training was met by establishing schools 
within the Treasury Department in which intensive 
work prepared applicants for their duties in a short 
time. 



CHAPTER XXII 

THE BRIDGE OF BOATS 

THE primary need of this country wlien it entered 
the war was that of ships. The necessity was 
urgent and it was evident that they would have to 
be provided in constantly increasing number by 
dozens and scores and hundreds, for a great army 
would have to be ferried across the Atlantic, with 
munitions in enormous amount and mountains of 
supplies, equipments and food. Unless a bridge of 
boats could be thrust across the ocean, and it could 
be renewed as fast as destroyed by submarine war- 
fare, nothing that this nation could do in the prosecu- 
tion of the war would be of the least value, for all 
her effort would be paralyzed. The enemy was de- 
pending upon submarine operations to paralyze that 
effort and was confident it could be done. 

The U-boats were sinking ships in 1917 at the rate 
of 6,000,000 tons a year, and destruction had so much 
exceeded construction that the world's supply of 
shipping had been greatly depleted. What remained 
was not sufficient to meet the already existing needs 
and the submarine inroads upon it were steadily les- 
sening its tonnage. Therefore the United States 
would have to build ships, and more ships. If the 
submarines sunk them, more would have to be pro- 
duced to take their places. And so the production 

184 



THE BRIDGE OP BOATS 185 

of ships became for America the primary and most 
pressing problem of her war effort. 

But for many decades America had not been a 
ship building nation. When she entered the war her 
ships were carrying a little less than nine and seven- 
tenths per cent of her own imports and exports. In 
the whole country there were only sixty-one ship- 
yards, both steel and wood, totaling 235 ways. About 
three-quarters of the capacity of the steel ship-yards, 
of which there were thirty-seven, had been already 
preempted for the essential expansion of the navy, 
and many of the wooden yards were unfit for modern 
ship-building. Less than 50,000 men were working 
in these yards, their number representing, probably, 
the sum total of the workers in this country whose 
industrial training had prepared them for ship-build- 
ing tasks. And among the men accustomed to the 
organizing and carrying through of great construc- 
tion enterprises only a scant few had had experience 
in the building of ships. They had built railroads 
and engines and cities and bridges and dams and 
machinery, but not ships. In short, the country was 
so scantily supplied with the facilities, the experience 
and the skill needed for the production of ships as 
to be next door to destitute of them. And ships were 
its primary and most urgent need. 

The nation sprang to meet that need with energy 
and determination. There were at first delays and 
faulty organization and disagreements that interfered 
with the early progress of the work and at the time 
greatly irritated the country. But at the signing of 
the armistice the sixty-one shipyards had been in- 
creased to more than two hundred, all at work upon 
steel, wood, or composite ships, the 235 ways had 



186 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

grown to over 1,000, and nearly 400,000 workers were 
building ships, with 300,000 more in the essential al- 
lied trades. 

At that time some of the largest shipyards in the 
world were in the United States, their sites having 
been transformed in one year from waste land to 
huge industrial plants already producing ships. By 
the end of 1918 there had been built, delivered to the 
Shipping Board and put into service 592 vessels of 
a total dead-weight tonnage of 3,423,465 and there 
were under construction steel ships amounting to 
3,600,000 tonnage and wood vessels aggregating 
1,200,000 tons. Within the jurisdiction of the United 
States Shipping Board there were, at the beginning 
of September, 1918, including chartered foreign ves- 
sels, 2,600 sea-going steam and sailing vessels of a 
total of 10,334,000 dead-weight tonnage. A part of 
this total had been gained by the requisition of ships 
under construction or contract by American ship 
yards and speeding up work upon them. In every 
yard effort was intensified, resulting in one case in 
three times the deliveries of the previous year. To 
October 1st, 1918, 255 of these requisitioned ships, 
of which the keels of only about twenty per cent had 
been laid when the Fleet Corporation took over the 
contracts, had been delivered, their tonnage amount- 
ing to 1,500,000. A few ships were built in other 
countries for the United States. Enemy vessels in 
American ports at our declaration of war were seized 
and put into American service after the damage in- 
flicted upon them had been repaired. These totaled 
about 600,000 dead weight tons. Other enemy ves- 
sels interned by neutral governments were purchased. 
More than 300 vessels of about 1,000,000 tonnage were 



THE BRIDGE OF BOATS 187 

chartered during the year for varying periods from 
associated and neutral governments. 

Thus did the United States Shipping Board Emer- 
gency Fleet Corporation, the organization through 
which the Government functioned in the management 
of the shipping situation, reach out in every direc- 
tion and secure every possible ship to aid in building 
that vitally necessary bridge of boats across the At- 
lantic. With the help of the Allies the bridge was 
built and, guarded by the British and American 
navies, it was able to carry with triumphant success 
all the men and materials of every sort, in all their 
vast amounts, that were needed. 

But the special achievements in ship construction 
of the U. S. Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Cor- 
poration deserve more extended mention, for it had 
built over sixteen per cent of this entire fleet. It de- 
vised a new scheme for the rapid production of ships, 
that of the so-called ''fabricating" shipyard. So 
enormous and so urgent was the need for a large ton- 
nage output that beside it existing facilities were 
negligible and too much time would be needed for 
the construction of enough shipyards of the ordinary 
type. So, while every effort was put forth to reno- 
vate and enlarge existing yards and build new ones, 
several huge yards were constructed for the assem- 
bling of the parts of steel ships after they had been 
made in steel structural works. A ship was designed 
with simple lines, flat decks and few curves, the de- 
sign standardized and production of the parts begun 
in many plants while the building of the big yards 
was rushed. One of these, having twelve ways for 
9,000 ton ships, laid its first keel five months after 
the signing of the contract for the building of the 



188 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

yard; another, having fifty ways for 7,500 and 8,000 
ton ships, laid its first keel, when the yard was half 
completed, in five months; and another, with twenty- 
eight ways for 5,000 ton ships, laid its first keel in 
three months. 

These three yards, each of which was built and 
operated by a contracting company, represented an 
investment of almost $100,000,000, They were 
equipped to turn out, together, 270,000 tonnage per 
month, which is more than the tonnage of all the 
steel ship yards in the country had produced in 
any entire year for the last previous nine years. 
These large yards had begun to come into production 
only a little while before the signing of the armistice. 
One of the plants included 139 acres, all of which 
was waste land, overgrown with weeds and brush, 
when the company signed its contract in September, 
1917. A year later its twenty-eight ways were com- 
pleted, a ship was under construction on each one, 
fourteen ships had been launched and one had been 
completed. Docks, railway sidings, shops, offices, had 
been built and huge stacks of ship-building material 
covered the ground. A big, four-sided bulletin board, 
on which was posted each day the progress of every 
ship on its twenty-eight ways, voiced the spirit of the 
workers and the management in a slogan across its 
top that proclaimed the purpose, in letters that fairly 
shouted, * ' Three ships a week or bust ! ' ' 

Another of these fabricating yards, whose site was 
chosen because of its nearness to industrial centers 
and easy accessibility, was located on an island that 
was an uninhabitable malarial marsh in September, 
1917. It was first taken in hand by sanitary engi- 
neers, drained, cleared of mosquitoes and flies and 



THE BRIDGE OF BOATS 189 

put into sanitary condition. Then the plant, cover- 
ing 846 acres, was built, its fifty ways extending for 
a mile and a quarter along the water front and its 
piers having space for twenty-eight vessels, so that 
seventy-eight ships could be in course of construction 
and outfitting at the same time. It had eighty miles 
of railroad track and 250 buildings of various kinds, 
including a hospital, a hotel, a Y. M. C. A. building, 
a cafeteria and a trade school. The yard laid its 
first keel in five months and launched its first ship 
in less than eleven months from the date of the first 
stroke of work on the island marsh. 

Existing shipyards enlarged their facilities and 
speeded their work and new ones rushed their ways 
to completion and began laying keels and driving 
rivets at the earliest possible moment. In the sum- 
mer of 1918, 280,000 laborers were engaged on ship- 
yard construction. In a little more than a year 400,- 
000,000 feet of yellow pine lumber for the construc- 
tion of wood vessels was cut in American forests and 
transported to shipyards in the Atlantic and Mexican 
Gulf coastal regions — enough to lay the floor of a 
bridge twenty-five feet wide from the United States 
to France. As much more pine and fir lumber was 
cut for the construction of vessels in Pacific Coast 
yards. In one month, September, 1918, 15,000,000 
feet of yellow pine lumber was used in the building 
of houses for shipyard workers. 

On the Great Lakes, when we entered the war, there 
were fourteen shipyards with seventy-five ways. The 
signing of the armistice saw twenty-one yards in that 
region, with 110 ways, and fifteen more ways under 
construction. These Great Lakes yards, when the 
Shipping Board took charge of the shipping program 



190 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

in August, 1917, sent at once a fleet of twenty-one 
steel vessels which had been used in lake commerce 
down the St. Lawrence for the government's use on 
the ocean. Some of them had to be cut in twO' to 
enable them to pass the canal locks, and were then 
welded together again and soon steamed out of the 
river's mouth loaded with cargoes. 

A world record of rapid work was made by one of 
these Great Lakes shipyards which launched a 3,500 
ton steel freighter seventeen days after the keel was 
laid and at the end of seventeen more days delivered 
the ship to the Shipping Board complete and ready 
for service. During the fourteen months from the 
time when the Shipping Board took charge of the 
shipping program until the end of hostilities the 
Great Lakes shipyards sent to the ocean a fleet of 181 
steel vessels aggregating over 600,000 deadweight tons, 
which was twice the record prewar output of sea- 
going ships of 1,500 deadweight tons and over. On 
the Pacific Coast one shipyard made another world's 
record with a wooden ship of 4,000 tons which was 
launched seventeen and one half days after the laying 
of the keel and was ready for the sea in eight days 
more. The Pacific Coast yards built, to the end of 
September, 1918, 137 vessels totaling over a million 
deadweight tons. 

Delivery of completed ships was often delayed by 
lack of boilers and other fittings, the manufacture 
of which had sometimes to wait for steel upon other 
war necessities. Nevertheless, as yard after yard 
began to show the results of the speeding of con- 
struction, the monthly tale of ships grew by mighty 
leaps. In August, 1918, at the end of a year, it 
passed the record monthly production of British ship- 



THE BKIDGE OF BOATS 191 

yards, which previously had built a larger tonnage 
than all the rest of the world combined. It kept the 
lead and broke its own record the next month, and 
that one also in October when seventy-eight ships of 
410,865 deadweight tonnage were delivered to the 
Shipping Board ready for service — a tonnage in one 
month exceeding by more than 100,000 tons our great- 
est annual pre-war output of sea-going vessels. 

During the twelve months ending September, 1918, 
the sea-going tonnage built in the United States ag- 
gregated a tonnage equal to 70 per cent of that built 
in the whole world in 1913, the year before the out- 
break of the world war, which until 1918 was the 
highest total of ship production in any year in the 
history of ship-building. The total number of mer- 
chant vessels under construction throughout the 
world, excluding the Central Powers, at the end of 
1918 was 2,189 ships of 6,921,989 gross tons, a little 
more than double the largest corresponding tonnage 
under construction by the world before the war. Of 
that total the United States was constructing 997 ves- 
sels of 3,645,919 gross tons, or almost half the number 
of vessels and more than half the tonnage. 

The official records of the Bureau of Navigation of 
the Department of Commerce show that there were 
constructed in the United States during 1918 821 sea- 
going vessels of 100 gross tons and over totaling 
2,597,026 gross tons, an unprecedented total for any 
country in the history of ship-building. Lloyd 's Reg- 
ister accords the highest previous total of ship pro- 
duction for any one year to the United Kingdom, 
whose shipyards launched in 1913 1,932,153 gross 
tons of vessels of 100 gross tons and over. The ship 
production of the whole world during that year was 



192 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

3,332,882 gross tona of vessels of 100 gross tons and 
over. The construction of sea-going vessels in the 
United States during the last six months of 1918 was 
at the rate of 3,600,000 gross tons a year. 

On a single day, July 4th, 1918, there were 
launched in American ship-yards for the United 
States Shipping Board 95 steel, wood and composite 
vessels of 3,000 deadweight^ — approximately 2,000 
gross — tons and over, totaling 474,464 deadweight, or 
approximately 316,310 gross, tons. And in the month 
of Octoher there were completed and delivered to the 
Shipping Board vessels of 2,000 gross tons or over 
totaling 283,652 gross tonnage, which exceeded by 
nearly 100,000 gross tons the highest output of ves- 
sels of 100 gross tons and over for any month in the 
ship-building history of any other country. 

From being almost a non-ship-building country the 
United States had sprung in a year and a half to 
the position of world leadership in ship construc- 
tion. 

The whole nation hung with eager interest upon 
the progress of the shipping program and during 
the first summer of our participation in the war, 
when it was being hampered by disagreements and 
delays, there was much anxious protest. The un- 
precedented winter of 1917-1918, with its bitter 
weather, shortage of coal and railroad congestion, 
also interfered with the forward movement of ship- 
ping affairs. But when at last it began to be mani- 
fest that the urgent need for ships would be met the 
country threw itself with enthusiasm into a helping 
attitude. Business and professional men took their 
vacations in shipyards and in overalls with sleeves 
rolled up they offered whatever aid, whether mus- 




A Shipyard in the Making 




Copyright by Brown Bros. 

The Fifty Shipways, Each with a Ship in Construction, 

OF the Same Yard One Year After Work Began 

Upon It 



THE BRIDGE OF BOATS 193 

cular or mental, was in their power. Hundreds of 
college students joined the army of shipyard work- 
ers. Business firms offered prizes to stimulate the 
speed of riveters, among whom were made some 
world's records. 

In line with the government's purpose to carry on 
its entire war effort in harmony with democratic aims 
and methods, a systematic program of education was 
instituted by the U. S. Shipping Board Emergency 
Fleet Corporation, whose chief purpose was to in- 
crease the efficiency of the workers by enlarging their 
vision and appealing to their intelligence. In every 
shipyard stirring talks gave the men information, 
which many of them at first lacked, about the meaning 
of the war, why America had entered it, what would 
be the significance of victory and of defeat to them 
and to the nation, why the ships were needed and 
what the labor of each of them meant to the battle 
lines across the ocean. These talks made the ship- 
workers see that, under the emergency, to build good 
ships as rapidly as possible was to give a great serv- 
ice to humanity. The program was well organized 
and hundreds of speakers — soldiers, ministers, pro- 
fessors, business men — addressed shipyard meetings, 
explaining, urging and inspiring. Effective posters 
in every yard gave pictorial point to their message 
and kept it constantly before the eyes of the men. 
Pamphlets and circulars were distributed among 
them that told them in direct and vigorous language 
the significance and importance of their work. The 
plan met with signal success and from week to week 
could be seen a steady growth of enthusiasm and de- 
termination, while improved morale and new ideals 
of citizenship were also evident. 



194 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

Skilled shipyard laborers were few in number com- 
pared with the need for the army of them that sprang 
out of our entrance into the war. Some new method 
of training had to be devised that would quickly pre- 
pare green men for capable and efficient service. The 
same idea of intensive training that proved successful 
in the preparation of officers for the army and of in- 
structors and workers in many branches of war ef- 
fort was applied to the shipyard problem. Training 
centers, which finally averaged two for each of the 
eleven ship-building districts, were established, each 
with a staff of instructors composed of men who had 
had both technical and practical experience and also 
training in effective teaching methods. To these cen- 
ters were sent bright mechanics, selected for their 
ability and promise. After a stiff six weeks' course, 
each in some special ship-building trade, they were 
returned to their respective plants, where they joined 
the yard 's own training staff and aided in the turning 
of green men into skilled laborers. Training schools 
to develop efficiency in the instructors of the training 
centers were also established, in order to make sure 
that the right kind of training would be given to 
the mechanics from the shipyards. Special courses 
were instituted at these training centers for men who 
wished to advance and broaden their capacity by 
gaining a knowledge of allied branches of work. Most 
of the yards organized training departments of their 
own which utilized all the assistance they could get 
from the training centers and also made use of skilled 
and capable mechanics in their own employ by having 
men trained in teaching methods instruct them in the 
art of showing others how to do things and then put- 
ting unskilled men into their charge. These methods 



THE BRIDGE OF BOATS 195 

of intensive training proved to both managers and 
workers that by them skilled labor in large quantities 
can be quickly provided. 

Safety engineering work aiming to secure and 
maintain better and safer conditions of working and 
to enlist the interest and cooperation of the employees 
had such good results as to reduce materially the per- 
centage of accidents. This went down from the aver- 
age for ship-building of twenty-two per cent before 
the war to as low as six per cent in one large plant. 

Shipyard publications had much to do with cre- 
ating a fine community spirit, instilling patriotism, 
broadening outlook and inspiring the workers with 
zeal for the job in hand. The Health and Sanita- 
tion section of the U. S. Shipping Board Emergency 
Fleet Corporation carried on a vigilant campaign to 
protect the health of the shipyard workers by making 
sure of a pure water supply, endeavoring to protect 
them from epidemics of disease, doing away with un- 
sanitary restaurants and lunch rooms in the vicinity 
of the plants and combating by education and medical 
clinics the scourge of social disease. 

The assembling of such large numbers of men as 
were needed by each and every one of the American 
shipyards for the country's program of ship-build- 
ing produced, for most of them, a housing problem 
that was almost as difficult and imperative as was the 
building of the sorely needed ships. It was an acute 
emergency and to meet it the United States Shipping 
Board Emergency Fleet Corporation was authorized 
to expend $75,000,000. When the cessation of hos- 
tilities came it had built or was building dwelling 
houses, apartment houses, dormitories, aness halls, 
boarding houses and other such structures to the 



196 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

value of $64,000,000 and had enlisted the coopera- 
tion of municipalities and public utilities companies. 
In some cases the increase in workers was absorbed 
by adjacent cities and in others it was sufficient to 
erect dormitories and cottages in nearby towns. But 
in several it became necessary to create new towns, 
upon newly selected sites, and to build at high speed 
homes and streets and all the many structures neces- 
sary for a community of ten thousand or more people. 
The aim in the building of these towns was to create 
permanent and attractive homes provided with the 
necessities and comforts of modern civilization, — ^well 
built and lighted streets, provisions for fire and po- 
lice departments, churches, libraries, schools and the- 
aters, — such as ordered, contented and intelligent 
communities desire. Some of the best architects and 
housing experts in the country contributed their serv- 
ices in the making of the plans for these towns, in 
which building went on at the rate of twenty or more 
houses per day. 

It was no small part of this huge shipping pro- 
gram to provide officers and crews for the ships that 
were sliding from their ways with increasing rapidity. 
For, along with the decrease in ship-building, Ameri- 
cans had lost interest in sea service. It was neces- 
sary to begin at once the recruiting and training that 
would man and officer the new ships. Within two 
months after we entered the war free navigation and 
engineering schools had been started, and when hos- 
tilities ended more than 6,000 men had been gradu- 
ated, of whom over 3,000 had received officers' li- 
censes while many others had entered the navy. And 
in the dozen or more mammoth Naval Eeserve Train- 
ing Stations established and conducted by the Navy 



THE BRIDGE OF BOATS 197 

Department many thousands of young men were 
trained for service in all capacities in the merchant 
marine. 

In so enormous an undertaking, entered upon with 
such scanty facilities and carried on under the stress 
of such urgent need, it was inevitable that the out- 
come should not always have equaled the hopes and 
desires of the country and that the zealous efforts 
and patriotic purposes of those engaged in it should 
not always have won complete success. But it was an 
achievement, within a year and a half, of plants en- 
larged and constructed for the building of ships, of 
labor trained for that building, of ships built and 
put into service, and of men trained to officer and 
man the ships that was a potent factor in the winning 
of the war. It was an immense and rapid industrial 
development made possible only by the ardent co- 
operation of all the factors of the entire national life 
necessary, under the emergency, to bring it to suc- 
cess. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

ORGANIZING THE NATION 

PRECEDING and following chapters show how 
important a part organization played in the sepa- 
rate phases of civilian support of the war. In every 
line of war effort there was voluntary and spontane- 
ous team-work on the part of all especially interested 
individuals who steadily cooperated with and formed 
a part of the nation-wide organization of that divi- 
sion of national life. The Food Administration and 
the Fuel Administration organized, each for its spe- 
cial work, the whole country and brought its own 
organization into touch with the people of every 
county and every community in the United States. 
The financing of the war evolved its own formation 
of a network of committees covering the land for the 
sale of bonds and stamps. So also in the mobilizing 
of industry for the support of the war each division 
of interest drew together in patriotic cooperation and 
all combined in voluntary team-work. A wide-spread- 
ing organization, inspired and held together by love 
of country, worked here, there and everywhere to aid 
in clearing the land of enemy spies and propaganda. 
Women linked up their existing organizations more 
closely and created new ones for more efficient work 
in all of the many kinds of war service which they 
undertook. Even the upholding of the fighting forces 

198 



ORGANIZING THE NATION 199 

by thought and effort for their welfare and happiness 
was effectively organized. And so on, through every 
phase of civilian support of the war, the universal 
individual eagerness to do everything possible was 
organized into a systematic, effective cooperation that 
was comprehensive in its scope and was directed by 
able leadership along definite policies which con- 
verged into the one purpose of applying that mo- 
bilized effort to the prosecution of the war. 

These were separate organizations, each devoted to 
its own purpose. But interlocking them all, partly 
by virtue of having conceived and launched many 
of them and partly by reason of its own purpose, 
bringing them all into efficient and harmonious co- 
operation and at the same time aligning the entire 
country in one vast organization that practically put 
the whole nation into one huge civilian army working 
for the support of the fighting forces, was the Coun- 
cil of National Defense. 

Created by an act of Congress in the late summer 
of 1916, the Council of National Defense was not fully 
organized until March, 1917, when our entrance into 
the war had become inevitable. In the creating act 
the Council was charged with the '^coordination of 
industries and resources for the national security and 
welfare. ' ' It was to consist of the Secretaries of War, 
the Navy, the Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, and 
Labor and it was directed to nominate to the Presi- 
dent an Advisory Commission of seven persons, each 
having special knowledge of some industry, public 
utility or natural resources, or being otherwise spe- 
cially qualified to give aid and counsel in the stimula- 
tion, development and coordination of national activi- 
ties and. ''the creation of relations which would ren- 



200 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

der possible in time of need the immediate concen- 
tration and utilization of all the resources of the na- 
tion." 

Primarily the Council of National Defense was an 
organizing machinery. It took into its hands the 
universal eagerness to serve of all the millions of the 
American people in civilian life and created for them 
the emergency means by which each and all could 
join the vast and immediate mobilization of resources 
and of effort that was necessary. At once it sum- 
moned to Washington for conference and the start- 
ing of cooperative effort the leaders in science, engi- 
neering, industry and other phases of national life. 
Under this exchange of ideas there was a rapid evolu- 
tion of plans that were quickly put into operation 
under its auspices. As they proved workable and 
grew in importance some were turned over to exist- 
ing agencies for administration and others developed 
into separate organizations. But all were so inter- 
locked that they marched forward with harmonious 
step, each cooperating with and aiding the others. 

The cooperation among industrial leaders for the 
mobilizing of the country's material resources for 
war production which was at once instituted by the 
Council developed later into the War Industries 
Board, the story of whose work for the war is told in 
the chapter dealing with ''War-Time Management of 
Trade and Industry." The Council initiated also 
the work of stimulating production for aircraft needs, 
of speeding coal production, of interesting the people 
in food conservation and of drawing the railroads to- 
gether into a national transportation policy. Its Com- 
mittee on Labor drafted the War Eisk Insurance Bill, 
initiated the undertaking and then turned it over to 



ORGANIZING THE NATION 201 

tlie Treasury Department. The policy of price fix- 
ing, which finally developed into a definite organiza- 
tion under the War Industries Board, had its begin- 
ning in the informal voluntary agreements entered 
into between members of the Council in the early 
days of its existence and representatives of industry. 
So also the priorities policy, which afterwards be- 
came a most important and efficient means of con- 
trolling trade and industry and bringing them into 
direct and effective war service, began with voluntary 
agreements between leaders of industry and com- 
merce and the Council in the early days of the war. 
Its Commercial Economy Board, which afterwards 
became the Conservation Division of the War Indus- 
tries Board, did a comprehensive and most essential 
service in the planning and instituting of economical 
policies for industry of nation-wide application that 
would release material and labor for war production 
uses. By the principle of voluntary cooperation 
which it inspired, initiated and organized into the 
war machinery of the Government the Council large- 
ly eliminated the possibility of profiteering in connec- 
tion with war effort and so helped to make the con- 
ducting of the industrial phases of this war, enor- 
mously increased though they were in both magni- 
tude and possibilities, incomparably more honest than 
it had been in any previous war in which the coun- 
try had ever engaged. 

The Department of Science and Eesearch of the 
Council of National Defense did particularly valua- 
ble work in getting together the scientific and tech- 
nical men of the country and so organizing and di- 
recting their knowledge and skill and their ability 
in research as to form a war resource of inestimable 



202 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIQHTEES 

value. Its membersliip included a large part of the 
men representative of the scientific, technical and 
engineering achievement in the United States and 
through this Department of the Council their serv- 
ices were at the call of the Government whenever 
needed. Through its General Medical Board the 
Council aided in the mobilization of the medical per- 
sonnel and resources of the country. Its Committee 
on Engineering and Education brought together the 
best thought and skill for the solution of engineering 
problems in connection with the war and for the 
aligning of educational institutions and facilities be- 
hind the country's war effort. Its Committee on 
Labor, besides drafting the war-risk insurance bill 
and initiating that undertaking and aiding in the 
development of the plan for the War Labor Admin- 
istration, did valuable work in helping to maintain 
hearty cooperation between the labor movement and 
the national war policies by promoting the welfare 
of industrial workers and by providing a system for 
the rapid and intensive training of mechanics. Its 
Highways Transport Committee cooperated with the 
War Department in facilitating the work of its im- 
portant motor-truck convoy service, developed rural 
motor express routes, instituted a movement for the 
better development and care of highways and assist- 
ed the Railroad Administration in its early struggle 
with the congestion of freight. 

As an organizing machinery and provider of means 
by which the whole nation could be brought into co- 
operation for war effort swiftly and efficiently, the 
Council of National Defense did not confine itself to 
the material phases of the country's resources but 
also helped the national spirit to find adequate ex- 



OEGANIZING THE NATION 203 

pression. To that end it organized a great, nation- 
wide system by which the war machinery was syn- 
chronized to harmonious work through every smallest 
section of the country and through which the na- 
tional spirit was enabled to find expression in effec- 
tive action. Under the State Councils Section of 
the National Council of Defense within a few months 
there had been organized in every state of the Union 
a State Council of Defense whose function was to 
centralize and coordinate the war work within the 
state, to cooperate with the work of the National 
Council, to inaugurate whatever new work local con- 
ditions rendered advisable and to create and direct 
local councils. County councils were organized in 
every county of each state and within most of the 
counties community councils, usually with the school 
district serving as the unit, were formed. These 
community councils were not committees, but were 
the community itself, with all its citizens and agen- 
cies organized for cooperative, effective, national 
service. It was a neighborhood democracy made ef- 
fective by organization and it established a direct 
means of reciprocal communication between the Gov- 
ernment and the masses of the people. An immense 
and closely woven network thus overspread the coun- 
try consisting, under the State Councils, of 4,000 
county organizations, 16,000 women's divisions and 
164,000 community and municipal units, extending 
through the wards of cities, through towns and vil- 
lages, across farming countrysides. The Woman's 
Committee of the Council, described at more length 
in the chapter on ''The Work of Women for the 
War, ' ' collaborated constantly, organizing the women 
of every community for any sort of war work they 



204 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

could do. While the functioning of the Councils, 
State, County and Community, was kept flexible and 
responsive to local initiative and local conditions, 
their most important work was that of translating 
into action those war policies of the Government that 
called for the cooperation of the people. Through 
them were made effective such nation-wide movements 
as the conservation of food and coal, the increasing 
of food production, the mobilization of industry, the 
selling of bonds and war stamps, the marshalling of 
labor, while there was hardly a war effort of the Gov- 
ernment of any sort in which they did not give aid. 
So remarkable and important has been this unifying 
of the nation by means of the system brought into 
life for war purposes by the Council of National De- 
fense that it is likely to remain as a permanent and 
useful feature of the life of the country in the com- 
ing years of peace. 

Throughout all the many services of the Council 
of National Defense during the war, its organiza- 
tion of war machinery, its mobilization of material 
resources, its bringing together of leaders in all 
phases of national life and showing them how they 
could aid the country, its vital work in enabling the 
humblest individual, and all the individuals in the 
nation, to become efficient in action for the war, the 
two most conspicuous features are, the voluntary 
character of all the effort and the universal willing- 
ness of the equally universal cooperation. Of all the 
vast and varied services which it commanded, from 
captains of industry aiid leaders of science to the 
committee heads in little country towns, practically 
all, except those of its office staff and clerical assist- 
ance, were given gladly to the nation for the sake of 



OKGANIZING THE NATION 205 

love of country and belief in American ideals. And 
the result proved, in the words of President Wilson, 
''beyond all question that the highest and best form 
of efficiency is the spontaneous cooperation of a free 
people. ' ' 



CHAPTEE XXIY 

INFORMING THE PUBLIC 

AMERICA fought ardently in the world war be- 
cause of the devotion of her people to demo- 
cratic ideals. Since one of those ideals is to base 
the participation of the people in public affairs upon 
a knowledge of those affairs as complete and accu- 
rate and universal as the limitations of human na- 
ture and human institutions make possible, it was 
necessary to provide some machinery that would 
serve as a means of communication between the pur- 
poses and the vast undertakings of the Government, 
functioning for the people, and the people them- 
selves. In common with the spirit and the methods 
by which all the war activities were carried on — 
spirit and methods which strikingly exemplified one 
of the fundamental traits of the national genius — 
the situation was met by creating an organization 
for the widest possible spreading of information 
about the national needs, activities and aims. The 
Committee on Public Information, created by an ex- 
ecutive order of the President soon after our declara- 
tion of war, began with a civilian Chairman and the 
Secretaries of State, War and the Navy as its mem- 
bers. At the close of hostilities it had a world-wide 
organization which commanded the services of thou- 
sands of authors, artists, journalists, speakers, mov- 

206 



INFORMING THE PUBLIC 207 

ing picture actors and producers and people of pub- 
lic spirit, most of them giving their services, who 
were working zealously among our own people, our 
war associates, our enemies and the neutral nations. 

The Committee was not concerned at all with cen- 
sorship rules and regulations and constantly en- 
deavored to secure, for the widest dissemination, all 
news of the war activities that would not benefit the 
enemy or obstruct our efficiency. As always in time 
of war, the decision upon what should be made pub- 
lic rested with the war making agencies of the Gov- 
ernment. The function of the Committee was to' 
secure important news and descriptions of all phases 
of our war making effort with as little waste as pos- 
sible of the time and attention of absorbed and over- 
burdened officials and to make systematic and effec- 
tive distribution of all this matter at home, among 
our war associates, in neutral countries and even be- 
hind the enemy lines, and to combat enemy propa- 
ganda by meeting its lies and perversions with simple 
truth. It depended always and solely upon facts, 
whether material or spiritual, and did not in any 
phase of its work deal in opinions or arguments. 

In each of the war making departments of the 
Government the Committee had a representative ex- 
perienced in newspaper work under whom, in each 
of the department's bureaus, was an assistant whose 
duty was to know accurately all the phases and de- 
tails of the bureau's work, to keep in touch with its 
progress and production, and to prepare such in- 
formation concerning it as could be published. All 
this matter passed through the hands of the Commit- 
tee's representative in the department, who was re- 
sponsible for its accuracy. Connected with his office 



208 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

was the censor for that particular war making agency 
who decided upon the military advisability of its 
publication. Of all the many thousands of releases 
for publication thus made the accuracy of only three 
or four was ever questioned, and of these one was 
afterward proved by official dispatches to have been 
true. 

Practically all the reputable newspapers of the 
United States agreed with the Government to refrain 
from publishing any news obtained by their own 
j representatives which would hamper the war mak- 
! ing program or give information to the enemy and 
in every large newspaper office the country over 
hung the Committee's list of specified classes of in- 
formation which they were requested not to men- 
tion. With one or two disloyal exceptions all the 
newspapers of the country voluntarily put them- 
selves under this restraint and themselves censored 
their own columns until the end of the war. In no 
other country at war was the press ever so little 
hampered by governmental restrictions, or put upon 
its honor in this way, or animated by a spirit so 
unselfishly patriotic. 

A Service Bureau of the Committee at a centrally 
located office in Washington provided information as 
to the officials, the function and the location of all 
Government departments and similar matters. In 
the rapid expansion of all these departments, the 
creation of new agencies and the overcrowded condi- 
tion of the capital, due to the thousands of men and 
women pouring into and going through the city, it 
saved for all these people many hours and much 
energy. The inquiries that came to it by personal 



INFORMING THE PUBLIC 209 

appeal, by telephone, and by mail mounted to an 
average of many hundreds daily. 

In addition to the news matter which it distrib- 
uted at home and abroad, the Committee on Public 
Information sent out an official bulletin which, with 
a circulation of more than 100,000, gave informa- 
tion concerning all governmental affairs and activi- 
ties in connection with the war; prepared special 
articles concerning all phases of the war progress of 
the nation which were widely published in the Satur- 
day and Sunday magazine sections of newspapers; 
and published several series of pamphlets, written 
by authorities upon the questions discussed, which 
set forth the reasons for our participation in the 
war, exposed the pretensions of Germany and dealt 
with other important matters. These pamphlets also 
had a wide circulation and were especially useful 
for the hundreds of public speakers who talked to 
assemblages of people in mines, factories, ship-yards, 
theaters and other public places. They were intended 
to give information to all who wanted it and to fur- 
nish ammunition for the determined battle the Com- 
mittee was waging to win the attention and rouse the 
feeling of a polyglot nation, huge numbers of whose 
people had not hitherto acquired much knowledge 
of or developed much interest in their adopted coun- 
try. 

For all this work several hundreds of authors, 
newspaper and magazine writers, publicists, univer- 
sity professors and others either gave their time and 
labor freely or took for their services an amount of 
pay that barely paid their living expenses, and, for 
the rest, were repaid by the satisfaction of doing 
something to aid the needs of their country. 



210 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

An organization of speakers called "Four-Minute 
Men," working under the Committee, had a member- 
ship of 35,000 and gave short, incisive talks in five 
or six thousand communities, speaking at motion pic- 
ture theaters, at factories during the noon hour, at 
country churches and school houses, at assemblages 
of every sort. The campaigns in which they took 
part embraced work for the Red Cross, the welfare 
organizations. Liberty loans, savings stamps, against 
German propaganda, and every kind of activity for 
the winning of the war that the nation engaged in. 
A bulletin for the use of the Four-Minute Men was 
prepared by the Committee's experts for each cam- 
paign, giving material for their suggestion and guid- 
ance. 

In addition to these men, the Committee organ- 
ized a great national campaign of public speaking 
which enlisted the services of patriotic men and 
women in each state, of returning soldiers, of people 
who had been abroad and had witnessed the fighting 
or had seen conditions in the belligerent and neutral 
countries, and of Allied officers. This work was de- 
centralized and, by means of the cooperation of the 
State Section of the Council of National Defense, 
was organized in each state. War conferences and 
war exhibits were held in important centers, the war 
agencies in each state were brought into unison with 
the work and the campaign for informing and in- 
spiring the people was carried through, all parts of 
the state, down to the villages and country districts. 
A band of a hundred veteran French soldiers, — the 
famous ''Blue Devils" — a Belgian regiment, and a 
company of American doughboys sent back from the 
front for this purpose were severally conducted at 



INFORMING THE PUBLIC 211 

various times across the country by the Committee 
on Public Information, with the double aim of helping 
the American people to realize the war more vividly 
and of enabling these fighting men to carry back to 
the front first hand information about what America 
was doing and what was her spirit. 

At the request of the Committee the heads of the 
various advertising clubs of the country came to- 
gether and mobilized for the country's service their 
organizations and their experts in every phase of 
advertising. For every one of the great campaigns 
for the prosecution of the war, these experts, under 
the direction of the Committee on Public Informa- 
tion, saw to the preparing of posters, advertisements, 
matter for bill boards, street car cards and all such 
matter. In the campaign to recruit 250,000 labor- 
ers for the shipyards, as a single instance, eighty ad- 
vertisements were prepared by typographical adver- 
tising experts and were carried in magazines and 
trade papers that donated the space and gave a com- 
bined circulation of 8,000,000. In a similar way the 
Committee organized and utilized the pictorial as- 
sistance that could be given by artists. Its Division 
of Pictorial Publicity included nearly all the best 
known artists of the United States and to it went 
every department of the Government that wished 
to make pictorial appeal to the people. Its hundreds 
of members contributed, for all purposes, three thou- 
sand or more posters, cartoons and drawings and 
aided much in the inspiring and uniting of senti- 
ment. 

Photographs and motion pictures were important 
factors of the Committee's work. Through it were 
distributed all of the photographs taken by permis- 



212 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

sion of the Army and the Navy and thousands upon 
thousands of these pictures, covering' every phase 
of the operations of the war making and war pro- 
duction divisions of the Government, were published 
in newspapers and magazines, collected by indi- 
viduals, used for the illustration of lectures and, in 
connection with some of the actual war making ob- 
jects and with models of others, shown in exhibits 
at county and State fairs attended by millions of 
people. The motion picture division of the Commit- 
tee's many-sided activities gave powerful aid in its 
campaign of education and interpretation both at 
home and in other countries. Important phases of 
the preparation at home for war and of the army in 
training or in battle in France were put into single 
reel and longer features, some of them providing a 
full evening's entertainment, and exhibited in thou- 
sands of moving picture houses in the United States 
and, with their captions translated into many lan- 
guages, were sent all through Latin America, the 
Orient, Africa, the Allied and neutral nations of 
Europe, to carry their message of America's spirit 
and America's purposes. 

All of these agencies the Committee on Public In- 
formation organized and used for the purpose of 
widening the horizon and informing and illumining 
the mind and spirit of our own citizens with regard 
to the causes, the purposes and the meaning of the 
war and of America's participation in it and to 
combat the specious and wide-spread propaganda of 
the German Government. That propaganda sought 
to blind our people to the issues involved, to create 
sentiment against our war associates, to undermine 
our faith in our own war agencies and our convic- 



INFORMING THE PUBLIC 213 

tion of the righteousness of the war and the ade- 
quacy of our war effort, and was especially insidious 
and dangerous among the ignorant, among aliens not 
yet well informed concerning the country and in 
some of the districts of the South. Wherever it 
worked the Committee met and endeavored to nullify 
its efforts. 

Equally well organized, determined and success- 
ful, but much more difficult, was the struggle the 
Committee carried on against anti-American propa- 
ganda and influences in other countries. It had dif- 
ferent phases and features, according to the condi- 
tions in the different lands, and it presents, alto- 
gether, one of the most dramatic and thrilling of all 
the stories of civilian effort for the war. But it is 
possible here only to outline its general features. 
The United States had for many years been soaked 
through and through with German propaganda, but 
so insidiously, so gently and so gradually had the 
work been carried on that scarcely any one had recog- 
nized its extent, its influence and its purpose. The 
shock of war brought some realization of what had 
been going on, the efforts of the Committee on Pub- 
lic Information revealed much more, and^ then the 
quick reaction of an intensely patriotic people 
brought against the pro-German campaign, paid for 
and directed in Germany, such a storm of popular 
indignation that it had little chance to make head- 
way except among the ignorant and some of the 
foreign born. But in the neutral countries German 
propaganda, German effort to win sympathy and 
belief and set feeling and conviction against America 
and the Allies was in full possession and had to be 
combated with care and tact as well as haste and 



214 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

energy. In every one of them America had been 
misrepresented, jeered at, lied about, pictured in 
colors that made her and her people the most despica- 
ble and loathsome upon the face of the earth, while 
her war effort was described as so inefficient and so 
impossible of success as to be ridiculous. 

The Committee established an ofiice in the capital 
of each one of the neutral countries, as it did also 
in that of each of our co-belligerents. The office 
head and the greater part of his staff went from 
home, but at his destination he secured translators 
and other helpers and had the hearty cooperation 
of Americans already there. His mission, carried on 
by every available means, was to oppose German 
propaganda and spread the truth about America. 
Publication was procured for news by wireless and 
cable and for descriptive articles by mail, while 
pamphlets and leaflets were widely distributed. Par- 
ticularly well organized and efficient was the ma- 
chinery for the sending of news by wireless and cable 
which carried to all the nations of the earth, except 
Germany and her allies, two' thousand words every 
day about what America was purposing and accom- 
plishing for the war. Until this machinery was 
started the neutral nations knew next to nothing of 
what this country was doing except through the per- 
versions and outright lies of German agents. It was 
by this means that President Wilson's addresses and 
messages had almost world-wide distribution as soon 
as they were published in the home country and the 
advantage was gained of the striking influence they 
everywhere exerted. 

Next to the news service in importance was the 
influence exercised by the moving picture films. 



THE BRIDGE OF BOATS 215 

which everywhere won favor almost instantly, 
aroused the greatest interest, by their better qual- 
ity crowded out the German films and in every 
country brought straight to the people such knowl- 
edge of Americans, of their every day life, of 
their purpose in the war and of their wonderful 
achievements for its prosecution as amazed them and 
greatly helped to turn the general sentiment as much 
in favor of as it had previously been against the 
United States. These pictures, on the civilian side, 
were gathered from every phase of American life, 
showing our cities, our agriculture, our educational 
institutions, our industries, our homes, our manifold 
efforts for social welfare, and were used to correct 
the deplorably mistaken conceptions about this coun- 
try which had gained vogue almost all over the world. 
They were always followed by pictures of war work, 
such as training camp activities, aviation fields, ship 
building and other matters, with films also of our 
camps and troops in France. 

A Foreign Press Bureau had the services of a long 
list of authors and publicists, many of them of wide 
reputation in our own and other countries. It sent 
every week to each one of the foreign representatives 
of the Committee a budget of matter that supple- 
mented the daily news service aiid covered every 
phase of American life and endeavor. From the 
different countries came requests by cable for arti- 
cles on specific subjects of the greatest variety which 
were prepared by specialists. One of these articles 
was reprinted by the British Government for use 
in England, where it distributed 800,000 copies. 
Through this Bureau and in connection with the 
matter it issued went posters, captioned in the Ian- 



216 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

guage of. each country to which they were sent, and 
millions of picture postals and photographs. The 
Committee representatives in the various lands com- 
mandeered the show windows of American business 
houses and kept up in them a frequently changed dis- 
play of posters, bulletins and pictures. 

In some countries reading rooms were established 
equipped with American newspapers, magazines and 
books and decorated with American posters and 
photographs, and in some cases classes were held in 
them for the study of English. Sometimes men of 
American citizenship and of thorough patriotism 
were sent back to their native countries to talk to 
and with the people concerning America. A com- 
pany of newspaper editors from each of several coun- 
tries toured the United States as guests of the Com- 
mittee on Public Information and others from Spain, 
Switzerland, Holland and the Scandinavian coun- 
tries were taken through the districts of American 
war works and camps in France. What they saw was 
so different from their preconceived and Germany- 
perverted ideas and made such a revolution in their 
minds that it changed the tone of their papers and 
had a notable influence upon public opinion in their 
respective countries. 

German propaganda was busy against America 
even in the countries of our war associates where it 
sought to undermine confidence in us, create suspicion 
of our purposes and in each one instill the fear that 
the United States would join some other of the Allies 
against that particular one. This presented a prob- 
lem easier to deal with than did the neutral coun- 
tries because the Committee had the cooperation of 
the respective governments. The same means were 



INFORMING THE PUBLIC 217 

used as in the neutral countries, the moving picture 
being a particularly efficient instrument in the work. 
Russia was the only country in which the Committee 
failed to win its purpose. Its representatives there 
worked hard and zealously, but Russia was so big and 
inarticulate, the German propaganda had behind it 
such vast sums of money and the Bolsheviki, as soon 
as they gained the upper hand, shut down so com- 
pletely upon all freedom of expression except for their 
own ideas and purposes that they had finally to give 
up their struggle. But they had used the opportu- 
nity to spread information among the advancing Ger- 
man troops, to leave the seeds of some knowledge of 
America and her desires and aims, and they did 
achieve some worth-while results in Siberia and in 
the prison camps of Russia. 

Some of the most interesting and valuable work 
done by the Committee in this war of ideas was in 
connection with its effort, in which it cooperated 
with the War Department, to inject some real knowl- 
edge of America into the enemy's troops and into 
the country behind his armies. The Committee pre- 
pared most of the material for this purpose, among 
those engaged upon the effort to make it efficient be- 
ing authors, historians, journalists, and advertising 
and psychological specialists, while the military 
forces undertook the job of distribution. Immense 
quantities of material, pamphlets, leaflets, short, 
pungent statements, speeches, facts about America's 
war preparations and intentions, were dropped by the 
ton upon the troops of the Central Powers and be- 
hind the lines upon cities and towns and country- 
sides. They were carried by airplanes which spread 
the documents far and wide, they were thrown by 



218 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

rifle grenades, by rockets and by a specially developed 
type of gun. Balloons of various kinds rained litera- 
ture upon armies and the country just behind them. 
Kites dropped leaflets upon the trenches. An Ameri- 
can invention was a specialized balloon with a metal 
container for the literature and a control attach- 
ment governing the movements of the balloon and 
the distribution of the ten thousand leaflets it car- 
ried. 

There can be no doubt of the effectiveness of this 
campaign upon the minds of the enemy's people be- 
cause, in the first place, both the German and the 
Austro-Hungarian governments went to the most ex- 
treme lengths in the effort to combat it, making death 
the penalty for touching the literature. Neverthe- 
less, the majority of the prisoners captured by the 
Americans had it in their pockets. In the next place, 
the influence of it became evident after the war closed 
in the temper and attitude of the enemy peoples and 
their determination to discard crowns and thrones 
and set up democratic governments. President Wil- 
son's speeches were found to be especially effective, 
each one that was sent across the lines being fol- 
lowed invariably by increasing ferment and dissatis- 
faction among the people. Into Germany, when the 
German censor had mutilated one of these speeches 
and distorted its meaning, the Committee at once 
sent the entire speech in German with the omitted 
and distorted parts properly printed in red. The 
result was so evident that the German government 
soon began to print the President's addresses cor- 
rectly and in full. 

It was a difficult fight that the Committee waged 
outside of the home country and the lands of our co- 



INFORMING THE PUBLIC 219 

belligerents, for it had to meet a tricky foe wlio al- 
ready held possession and would and did use all man- 
ner of insidious means and lying statements. But 
everywhere the Committee presented its claims frank- 
ly and openly, telling the authorities just what it 
wanted to do and what its methods would be, offering 
to the people plain and true statements and depend- 
ing upon their honesty, intelligence and sense of jus- 
tice. One large factor in its success was undoubtedly 
this openness and honesty of purpose and methods. 
The completeness with which public opinion in the 
neutral countries finally swung to the side of the 
United States and the Allies, the collapse of civilian 
Germany and the decay of morale among the German 
and Austro-Hungarian troops all helped to prove the 
importance and the success of its long, hard struggle. 
Just how great a portion of these developments was 
due to the Committee's work can not yet be estimated. 
But, because mind and spirit dominate force and its 
weapons were wholly those of mind and spirit, it 
is already evident that it deserves no small measure 
of credit. 



CHAPTER XXV 

WAE-TIME CONTROL OP TRADE AND INDUSTRY 

THE entire commercial and industrial life of the 
country was established on a war basis very 
soon after war was declared. Trade had to be thus 
mobilized in order to defeat the efforts of the enemy 
to supply himself by roundabout and underground 
means with American products and in order to use 
efficiently the organization of commerce for the prose- 
cution of the war. Industry had to be mobilized in 
order to make sure that it would produce all the 
enormous amounts of every sort that would be needed 
for war purposes. A people accustomed throughout 
their history as a nation to a minimum of govern- 
mental control of or interference in their business 
affairs and believing in and practicing the principle 
of individualism in business suddenly found them- 
selves called upon to surrender that principle and 
submit to pervasive governmental regulation. It 
was a sharp and searching test of patriotism and of 
loyalty to national ideals and it put to thorough trial 
the mental elasticity, alertness and resourcefulness 
of the business life of the country. 

These new conditions, limitations and controls were 
administered by War Boards of Trade and Industry. 
That for trade was instituted six months after the 
declaration of war as a more comprehensive and effi- 

220 



CONTROL OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY 221 

cient successor of an Export Administrative Board. 
The purpose of the War Trade Board was primarily 
to carry out the provisions of the Act forbidding 
Trade with the Enemy and certain portions of the 
Espionage Act. It had under its control the whole 
of the foreign commerce of the United States, which 
it managed by means of a system of licenses for ex- 
ports and imports. Not a pound of goods of any sort 
could be shipped out of or into the country without 
a license granted by the War Trade Board, and no 
license was granted by it without full knowledge of 
the character of the shipment, its destination if an 
export and its source if it were inward bound. It 
had its branch offices in a score of cities, its repre- 
sentatives in foreign countries, its trade advisers and 
distributors who were men of intimate and extensive 
knowledge of trade conditions in all commodities at 
home and abroad, its members who supplied informa- 
tion concerning war trade matters all over the earth, 
from Iceland to Cape Horn and from Siam round the 
world to Japan, its bureaus which studied the prob- 
lems constantly arising and collected data for their 
solution and for the guidance of the Board. The ap- 
plications made to the War Trade Board for export 
licenses, nearly all of which were granted, averaged 
over 8,000 per day. The transactions which passed 
daily through its hands represented values of from 
$40,000,000 to $50,000,000. It had 3,000 employees, 
most of whom were located in its Washington offices, 
although its representatives were to be found in every 
important trading post in the world outside of enemy 
countries. 

The War Trade Board, by limiting exports, con- 
served the products of the country for the use of our 



222 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

own people and the people of the nations associated 
with us in the great conflict so that these products 
might be used in whatever way would best aid the 
prosecution of the war; it so controlled and super- 
vised the shipping of goods to associated and neutral 
nations as to conserve shipping space for military 
uses; it regulated with the closest surveillance the 
shipping of goods to neutral countries in order to 
make sure that they would not be re-shipped in covert 
ways to enemy destinations ; it hunted out enemy and 
enemy-controlled firms in our own and neutral lands, 
closed up the former and prevented trade with the 
latter, although it also in neutral countries made 
every effort to find and list for American merchants, 
in the place of these forbidden firms, others in the 
same lines not friendly with the enemy with whom 
trade could be carried on; and it so arranged trade 
with neutral nations as to supply them with necessi- 
ties, under guarantees that these should not be reex- 
ported, in return for their export to the United States 
and her associates of certain needed products and 
permission for this country to use their shipping. 

This mobilization of the commercial arm of the 
United States soon proved its value and the govern- 
ment 's control of trade through the War Trade Board 
was a highly important factor in hastening the win- 
ning of the war. The firm hand which was laid on 
commerce with certain neutral nations of Europe, 
through which Germany had been getting large 
amounts of food and supplies, finally made effective 
the blockade of the enemy. The trade of those na- 
tions with the United States during the two and a 
half years before our entrance into the war had 
jumped to enormous figures, many times its previous 



CONTROL OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY 223 

volume. When the War Trade Board assumed con- 
trol of American commerce it fell, in the case of one 
nation, to one-twentieth of what it had been in the 
first year of the war, while the total exports of food 
stuffs of the neutrals of northern Europe to the Cen- 
tral Powers declined in a few months by from sixty- 
five to eighty-five per cent of what they had been in 
the previous year. 

The Board procured, by trade arrangements with 
European neutrals, the use of shipping for the 
United States and Great Britain amounting to over 
two million tons, for which there was the greatest 
need for transportation of troops, munitions, foods 
and supplies to Europe. For this same purpose the 
Board conserved much tonnage by practically sus- 
pending, for several months, trade in many commodi- 
ties with South America and the Orient. Working 
in harmony with the War Industries Board, it pre- 
vented the shipment out of the United States of all 
materials needed by this country and the associated 
nations for the swift and efficient prosecution of the 
war. 

Both the War Trade Board and the War Indus- 
tries Board cooperated constantly with the other 
civilian organizations through which the nation car- 
ried on its support of the war, such as the Food 
Administration, the Fuel Administration, the Council 
of National Defense, the U. S. Shipping Board 
Emergency Fleet Corporation and the Railroad Ad- 
ministration, and by this union of organization kept 
up a harmonious, smoothly articulated and swiftly 
moving team-work through which the full resources 
and powers of the entire nation were mobilized and 
put to the service of the two direct war agencies of 



224 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

the Government, the War and the Navy Depart- 
ments. 

The function of the War Industries Board in this 
nation-wide scheme of organization was so to organ- 
ize and regulate the industries of the country as to 
insure the materials necessary for the war prose- 
cuting agencies of the Government and at the same 
time protect the country's civilian needs. It was 
charged with providing the nations associated with 
us in the war with such military supplies as they de- 
sired and America could spare and neutral nations 
with such commodities as they needed and would ex- 
change for materials essential to this country. Thus 
these two administrative war agencies, the War Trade 
Board and the War Industries Board, together had 
practically complete control of all the vast affairs of 
the whole nation's industry and commerce. As a 
sculptor works a piece of clay into any desired form, 
these two boards took the country's business life into 
their hands and moulded and shaped it into a war- 
making machine. 

By a system of priorities that governed both pro- 
duction and distribution the War Industries Board 
regulated the supply of raw materials to manufac- 
turers and the delivery of finished products. It 
stimulated production and speeded distribution of 
whatever was urgently needed for the fighting forces, 
for exchange with neutrals or for our own people, but 
limited the supply of raw materials, or coal, or elec- 
tricity, or labor, and temporarily withheld the facili- 
ties of distribution when need was not immediate, or 
when there would otherwise have been interference 
with some war-making effort. Every important class 
of industry in the country, and some that were not of 



CONTROL OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY 225 

large consequence in so far as the size of their busi- 
ness was concerned, came within the scope of the 
Board's operations. The expert leaders of these in- 
dustries were represented among the advisers of the 
Board, to which they brought their comprehensive and 
profound knowledge of resources, conditions, meth- 
ods of operation, and quantity, quality and ordinary 
destination of output. Industries were listed, classi- 
fied and studied to determine the degree of prefer- 
ence to which each was entitled, and in many cases 
the same method was applied to individual plants 
within an industry. To those entitled to preferential 
treatment because they could best subserve some 
phase of war need was given priority of service in 
all their requirements, while the needs of others were 
deferred until the preferred industries or plants were 
satisfied. 

It is not possible to describe all the multiple 
achievements of the War Industries Board, but a 
glance at them shows many of vital importance. By 
establishing maximum prices upon a number of staple 
raw materials necessary in the war-making program, 
an executive order of the President putting into legal 
operation its agreements and decisions, the Price 
Fixing Committee of the Board stabilized prices and 
prevented or lessened profiteering in many industries. 
The Conservation Section reduced wastage in indus- 
try in various ways, but especially by curtailing the 
number of patterns, or varieties, in each of many 
lines of production, scrutinizing for this purpose 
nearly two hundred different industries. Thus, the 
thousand and more different patterns for a buggy- 
step were reduced to two, with resulting economy 
of both labor and material. A Committee on Emerg- 



226 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

ency Construction took charge, under the Construc- 
tion Division of the Government, of the vast build- 
ing program upon which the nation had at once to 
enter. Cantonments, flying fields, camps, hospitals, 
embarkation depots, docks, wharves, storehouses, ord- 
nance, powder, explosives and nitrate plants and 
other structures had to be built with the greatest pos- 
sible rapidity. The War Industries Board first de- 
veloped a method for getting the necessary informa- 
tion concerning contractors who could take charge of 
this enormous building program and devised a scheme 
of organization and then, by means of its priorities 
system, made sure that each operation should have 
at the moment of need the necessary materials, 
transportation facilities and labor. These struc- 
tures, finished and in construction, totaled a cost at 
the end of the war of approximately two billion dol- 
lars. The Chemical Division did highly important 
work in the way of instituting, aiding and speeding 
scientific investigations and stimulating new chemical 
industries, such as the potash supply and the dye 
industry. The Steel Division received the enthusias- 
tic cooperation of the steel manufacturers, who 
speeded up their plants for the production of the 
immensely increased quantities needed of this vital 
product. More and more steel, and ever more steel, 
was necessary for the making of munitions, guns, can- 
non, rails, locomotives, shipyards, ships. In the last 
six months of 1918 the steel products that went into 
direct and indirect war necessities amounted to 22,- 
000,000 tons, a production of about twenty-five per 
cent more than would have been the reasonable ex- 
pectation for the period. The Steel Division handled 
approximately 40,000,000 tons of steel per year. The 



CONTEOL OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY 227 

Board 's program of speeding work greatly increased 
the output in many vital industries. For instance, 
the locomotive industry doubled its production in 
three months without increasing its facilities or ex- 
panding its works. It has been estimated that the 
industrial capacity of the country was increased by 
at least twenty per cent. 

All over the country business men cooperated with 
the War Industries Board with patriotic zeal, will- 
ingly curtailing their output and reducing their in- 
comes in order to release material, capital, labor, 
fuel, transportation facilities, for the expediting of 
work necessary for the winning of the war. Dozens 
of them left their affairs in the hands of subordinates 
or gave up high-salaried positions and entered the 
service of the War Industries Board in order that 
the nation might have the advantage of their train- 
ing and their wide and expert knowledge. These 
men, who were generally known as ''the Govern- 
ment's dollar-a-year men," because legally the Gov- 
ernment can accept no gratuitous service, freely gave 
to the country, as their contribution to the winning of 
the war, what it could not have bought for millions 
of dollars and worked with as much energy and ardor 
as ever they had done for the making and furthering 
of their own fortunes. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

*'the greatest mother in the world" 

BEFORE the world war the American Red Cross 
would have had ample reason to complain, had 
it been so minded, of the indifference of the great 
masses of the American people to its rightful claim 
upon their interest, sympathy and support. But its 
world-wide works of compassion during the war, that 
won for it the loving titles of ''The Greatest Mother 
in the World" and "The Universal Mother," opened 
their eyes and their hearts until they almost merged 
themselves in it and made it the organization through 
which they themselves functioned for the help of the 
war-made need and suffering. 

The American Red Cross was transformed to a 
war basis within a month after the United States en- 
tered the conflict. It had then less than half a mil- 
lion members. Five months later they numbered five 
millions. The membership rose to fifteen millions in 
the following spring and a campaign for new mem- 
bers in December, 1918, for which arrangements 
had been made before the end of the war, raised the 
number to nearly 18,000,000, an average of member- 
ship in the Red Cross for almost every family in the 
Union. In addition, the Junior Red Cross, composed 
of school children organized under their teachers into 

228 



*' GREATEST MOTHER IN THE WORLD" 229 

auxiliaries for Red Cross work suitable to their ages, 
numbered approximately 10,000,000. 

Whatever the Red Cross has asked of the American 
people for the financing of its vast works of mercy 
they have given with overflowing hands. In June, 
1917, it went to them for a war fund of $100,000,000. 
They gave it $115,000,000. In May of the following 
year the Red Cross told them it needed another hun- 
dred million dollars and they gave it $176,000,000. 
Altogether, more than 47,000,000 American people 
gave to the Red Cross during our war period $325,- 
000,000 in money and manufactured products of a 
value of $60,000,000. 

Of the 8,500 persons who carried on the administra- 
tive and executive work of the organization in its 
national, divisional and foreign headquarters 2,000 
were volunteers. Many of these unpaid executives 
gave up large salaries and important positions in pri- 
vate life to devote their skilled and capable service 
to this world mother. Of the paid employees more 
than 5,000 received no more, and some of them less, 
than $1,500 a year. 

Almost 4,000 chapters, with 16,000 branches, cov- 
ered the entire country with a network of busy groups 
whose willing hands contributed aid and comfort 
that the Red Cross carried widely over land and sea. 
A division in which were organized Americans out- 
side of the continental limits, called the Insular and 
Foreign Division, girdled the earth and included a 
membership of 100,000 adults and 125,000 juniors. 
Its members contributed almost $2,000,000 in money 
and finished products representing a value of $1,500,- 
000. They were scattered throughout Central and 
South America, the West Indies, Hawaii, the Philip- 



230 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

pines, little Guam, China, Japan, Siberia, Spain, 
Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland. 

In nearly 4,000 Eed Cross chapters more than 
8,000,000 women gave volunteer service so faithfully 
that, however untrained they were at the beginning of 
the war, at its end the big majority of them were 
skilled workers in all the Red Cross needs. They 
made a total of 291,000,000 articles, in which were 
used raw materials costing $40,000,000. All of these 
articles were standardized, army surgeons establish- 
ing the standard for surgical dressings and a commit- 
tee of women, sent to Europe for that purpose, de- 
signing models and illustrations of garments needed 
in the hospitals and in civilian relief work. Knitted 
garments and comfort kits were also made by uni- 
form models. Practically every American fighting 
man who went overseas during the last year of the 
war and every man in the training camps who needed 
them were supplied with Red Cross knitted articles, 
while many of the Allied soldiers and thousands of 
refugees wore them with gratitude. These volunteer 
Red Cross workers, who at the same time were busy 
upon their home duties, made over 250,000,000 surgi- 
cal dressings, 14,000,000 knitted articles, 1,400,000 
garments for refugees and 22,255,000 garments and 
supplies for hospitals. They also renovated hun- 
dreds of thousands of soldiers' garments and aided in 
the collection of thousands of tons of clothing for the 
destitute in Europe. 

Through the Home Service section of the Red 
Cross organization communities all over the country, 
alike in cities and remote country districts, found 
the opportunity of giving individual service which 
would help in the winning of the war by sustaining 



*' GREATEST MOTHER IN THE WORLD'' 231 

the morale of soldiers' families and promoting the 
public welfare. Through this branch of Red Cross 
activity, in which 10,000 local committees and 50,000 
men and women participated, 300,000 families of 
soldiers were aided with advice, counsel and practical 
helpfulness of whatever sort was needed for the solv- 
ing of business or legal tangles, household perplex- 
ities, family problems, difficulties due to illness, 
worry and loneliness. These Home Service workers 
carried on a nation-wide campaign to encourage the 
writing of cheerful letters to the men overseas, they 
spread a doctrine of neighborliness toward soldiers' 
families, they enlisted the aid of physicians, lawyers, 
business men, teachers and others who could give the 
special kinds of assistance that were needed and they 
devoted to this work of conserving morale and pro- 
moting welfare some $6,000,000, aside from their per- 
sonal service, which was far beyond money value. 
Training courses were instituted to fit for more in- 
telligent and efficient work those wishing to enter this 
branch and were taken by several thousand persons. 
The Red Cross carried on a camp service at all the 
camps and cantonments in the United States which 
rendered emergency aid, looked after the welfare of 
sick soldiers and maintained connection with the 
Home Service section. It established soon after we 
entered the war at more than five hundred railway 
stations a canteen service which furnished refresh- 
ments to traveling soldiers and sailors, while its sani- 
tary service cooperated with the public health au- 
thorities to maintain healthful conditions in military 
zones. It cooperated with the Government by organ- 
izing base hospitals, naval hospital units, and ambu- 
lance companies and by enrolling nurses, of whom 



232 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

over 30,000 answered its call, and forming them into 
units for service. 

Overseas, the army service of the American Red 
Cross was to be found wherever it could aid in caring 
for the wounded of the front line forces or in safe- 
guarding the health and improving the comfort of 
soldiers in the rear of the battle zones. It built huge 
storehouses for the temporary housing of its sup- 
plies at every American port in France, at distribut- 
ing points, at army concentration camps and behind 
the lines. It erected two nitrous oxide plants that 
together produced 25,000 gallons per day. Its can- 
teens and rest rooms were strung along the lines of 
communication between front and rear, its rolling 
canteens and hot drink kitchens carried comforts and 
refreshments even into the front line trenches, it 
helped to maintain sanitary conditions wherever 
there were American troops, it cared for the sick and 
the wounded in base hospitals and convalescent 
homes, it looked out for American soldiers in enemy 
prisons, learned their addresses and furnished them 
with food, clothing and supplies, it searched for the 
missing, gave counsel to the troubled, and was ready 
with instant help for any and every need of the sol- 
dier or sailor. 

While its first interest and care were for the men 
of the American Expeditionary Forces, its similar 
services were always ready for the needs of the 
soldiers of the Allied nations. To the French soldiers 
the American Red Cross gave especial attention be- 
cause, on account of the long and desperate struggle 
which France had carried on with the enemy on her 
own soil, their need was greatest. The advance guard 
of the American Red Cross on its war footing which 




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''GREATEST MOTHER IN THE WORLD'' 233 

went to France in June, 1917, numbered nineteen 
men. Within six months it had there 3,000 workers, 
whose numbers were constantly being augmented, it 
was providing food, baths and beds to 20,000 French 
soldiers per day at its canteens and rest rooms on the 
lines of communication, serving hot and cold drinks 
from canteens at the front, while at its metropolitan 
canteens an average of 750,000 French and Allied 
soldiers were being fed each month and it was giv- 
ing invaluable aid and service to French hospitals. 
Among the populations of the countries that were 
fighting the common foe the work of the American 
Red Cross was of incalculable value in the saving 
of life, the prevention of suffering and the conserv- 
ing of morale. Its civilian service was wide spread 
and included the people of Palestine, Roumania, 
Greece, Serbia, Poland, Russia and Siberia, Italy, 
Switzerland, Belgium, and France. The service it 
gave varied with the local needs. In Switzerland it 
dealt mainly with the interned, the refugees and the 
prisoners that were being returned to their own coun- 
tries, providing food, clothing, comforts and what- 
ever assistance was needed. In Italy, where at the 
end of the war the Red Cross had expended almost 
$17,000,000, its appearance in the summer of 1917, 
the advance courier of American's assistance, was of 
great value in counteracting German propaganda 
against the United States and proving to the people 
that they could depend upon American aid. It fed 
thousands of the refugees from the invaded region: 
its canteens, rest-houses and distributed comforts 
cheered the Italian armies at the front and their 
supporting lines; it furnished hospital supplies and 
scores of ambulances manned by Red Cross drivers; 



234 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

it sought out the families of soldiers that needed aid 
and gave help to more than 400,000; it established 
work rooms for women, nurseries and schools for 
children, homes and colonies in the mountains and at 
the seaside for children who were ill ; and at the end 
of the war it had under way a campaign against 
tuberculosis. 

In Belgium it carried on a children's service by 
aiding existing hospitals, building new ones, estab- 
lishing colonies and nurseries for children and or- 
ganizing the aid of nurses and physicians for baby- 
saving effort, gave to all in need dispensary and home 
service and food, and supplied its usual army service 
for the Belgian soldiers whether at the front, in 
hospitals or interned in Holland, and gave, in addi- 
tion, educational help. Among the half million and 
more Belgian refugees it set up administrative relief 
units of its own which cooperated with those of Bel- 
gium and aided with money, machinery, food, cloth- 
ing, materials and friendly help of every sort. 

In England the Red Cross service was devoted to 
caring for the hundreds of thousands of American 
soldiers and sailors passing through on their way 
to and from the front, or in camps, nursing the 
wounded sent back from France, and providing for 
those shipwrecked near British shores. 

In France, in addition to its very great and im- 
portant work among the soldiers of our own and the 
Allied armies, with its many hospitals and convales- 
cent homes, its diet kitchens and hospital huts, its 
medical supplies, its baths and sterilizing plants, its 
canteens and kitchen service, and its expert service 
in searching for missing men, it carried on exten- 
sive civilian relief in cooperation with the French 



'^GEEATEBT MOTHER IN THE WORLD'* 235 

Government and with French societies. It cared for 
refugees, for needy families whose men were at the 
front, provided clothing, food, medical attention and 
better housing, helped to rehabilitate battle dev- 
astated regions and enable their population to re- 
turn, inaugurated an anti-tuberculosis campaign and 
carried on a children's service for the saving of 
babies' lives and the conserving of the health and wel- 
fare of children. The American Red Cross had 
9,000 persons in all the activities of its service in 
France during our war period. 

Long before the end of the war the Red Cross be- 
gan to turn its attention to the great problem of the 
reeducation of blind and maimed soldiers. It gave 
them training in the use of artificial limbs so that 
they could use these substitutes deftly and offered 
vocational training that would fit them to support 
themselves and their families in new occupations in 
which their mutilations would not be a handicap. In 
France it worked in cooperation with the French Gov- 
ernment, carrying on by means of moving pictures 
and lectures an extensive educational propaganda 
among the wounded in the hospitals to enlist their in- 
terest, stimulate their courage and persuade them to 
undertake the training, giving assistance to existing 
schools, establishing an electrical training work shop 
and a large and well equipped farm for agricultural 
training in modern scientific methods. In the United 
States it turned the activities of the Red Cross In- 
stitute for Crippled and Disabled Men to war service 
and carried on schools for the training of those who 
wished to aid in the treatment by vocational therapy 
of wounded convalescents. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

FEEDING THE NATIONS 

IN April, 1917, the long and bitter struggle had so 
drained the food supply of the Western Allies 
that they were dependent upon North America for 
the food that would enable their armies to continue 
the battle for civilization, prevent the starvation of 
their civilians and the wholesale death of their chil- 
dren. To this country the neutrals of Europe had 
also to look for sufficient food to save their people 
from suffering. There was much grain in Argen- 
tina and Australia, but ships could not be spared for 
the long and dangerous journeys to and from those 
countries. Submarine warfare had destroyed so 
much of the shipping, not only of the Allies but of the 
European neutrals as well, that every available ship 
was needed for use on the Northern Atlantic. There- 
fore, North America was the last reservoir of food, the 
last producer of food, to which the hungry popula- 
tions of Western Europe could turn for the sus- 
tenance of their armies and civilians or the neutral 
nations and such of the subjugated peoples under the 
German yoke as could be reached look with hope for 
any help. All Europe was on the verge of starvation 
and only North America, which meant chiefly the 
United States, could give assistance. For this coun- 
try to produce and conserve vast quantities of food 

236 



FEEDING THE NATIONS 237 

and send them to Europe had become one of the fun- 
damental necessities for the winning of the war. 

The United States Food Administration was 
created, under the Food Control Act passed by Con- 
gress in August, 1917, for the purpose of handling 
this situation in such a way as would give the na- 
tions with which we were assoeiated the food they 
needed and would at the same time protect our own 
people against food scarcity and excessive prices. A 
Food Administrator, acting under the informal re- 
quest of the President, had already been at work 
for three months, securing data and working out 
tentative plans, and had opened the way and ac- 
complished much by appealing to the people for 
voluntary cooperation. The work of the Food Ad- 
ministration throughout the war was another example 
of the splendid team-work of the whole nation and of 
the highly efficient cooperation of all the agencies of 
the Government. In cooperation with it the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture bent its energies to the stimula- 
tion of food production, the War Trade Board con- 
trolled food movements between this and other coun- 
tries, the War Industries Board saw to it that such 
manufacturers as produced goods needed in the pro- 
duction, storage, conservation and movement of food 
supplies received the necessary raw material. Lead- 
ers in the grain trade, familiar with all its phases, 
gave up their connection with enterprises of profit 
and at great personal sacrifice volunteered their 
services to act as managers of the corporation through 
which the Food Administration purchased its im- 
mense grain supplies and controlled the grain situ- 
ation. Dealers in food stuffs of every sort, both 
wholesale and retail, willingly deprived themselves of 



238 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

large possible profits and obeyed the requests of the 
Food Administration. And the people all over the 
country voluntarily pledged themselves to the neces- 
sary program of food conservation. The task of 
feeding the nations of Europe and the armies of 
America, England, France and Italy became the tasb 
of the whole nation, and the whole nation, guided 
by and functioning through the Food Administration, 
took up the task with eager hands. 

We entered the war with our national stocks of 
cereals at a lower level than they had been for many 
years, due to the heavy demand made upon them by 
the Allied nations during the previous year. There 
had been also, for the same reason, a considerable 
lessening in the number of food animals. 

Beginning in the spring of 1917 and continuing 
through that and the following year the stimulation 
of production was carried on by setting before the 
farmers of the country and, indeed, before all the 
population, the urgent need for more food than the 
nation had ever before produced. The appeals to 
grow food went to the owners of back-yard gardens 
in cities and towns and villages, to all who had or 
could obtain the use of a few square feet or a few 
acres of soil, to farmers all over the land. The Agri- 
cultural Department used all its avenues of reaching 
the farming population, agricultural colleges aided 
the movement, newspapers and magazines published 
discussions of the subject and advice for the ama- 
teur. It has been estimated that during the first year 
of the war at least 2,000,000 **war gardens" were 
planted, over and above the usual garden planting, 
and that number was considerably increased during 
the second season, Most of them bore good results 



FEEDING THE NATIONS 239 

and their products added immensely to local food 
supplies and so lessened the drain upon exportable 
foods. The *'war garden army'' included men, 
women and children. Business men spent leisure 
hours hoeing and planting, thousands of women, in 
addition to those who worked in home gardens, turned 
their attention to agricultural labor and did what 
they could in the lessening of the serious problem of 
help on the farms. Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts did 
efficient work, school boys who were old enough and 
strong enough to make their labor right and worth 
while went by the thousands from cities and towns to 
country districts to work upon farms. 

Guaranteed prices for wheat, established in ac- 
cordance with the conclusions of the Food Adminis- 
tration and its committee of expert advisers, pre- 
vented the sky-rocketing of prices and assured the 
farmer a staple return for his labor. This, in addi- 
tion to what the farmers already knew of the need for 
food, resulted in the planting of immense acreages. 
In 1917 there were planted 35,000,000 acres of lead- 
ing crops beyond the average of the five-year period 
immediately preceding the war, and 22,000,000 acres 
in excess of the previous year. But 1918 exceeded 
even this vast acreage with a planting of 289,000,000 
acres, an increase over the preceding record of 
5,600,000 acres. The bitter winter of 1917-1918 
killed much wheat and the next summer drouth with- 
ered much corn. Nevertheless, the aggregate yield of 
the leading cereals in each of these years exceeded 
that of any preceding year in the nation 's history ex- 
cept that of 1915, when unusually favorable weather 
produced a more bountiful harvest from a smaller 
acreage. "With the expectation that the war would 



240 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

continue until at least well into the next summer, the 
Government appealed in 1918 for a still greater pro- 
duction of wheat for the following year. The farm- 
ers responded with a planting of winter wheat 
amounting to over 49,000,000 acres, which, it was 
calculated, with average winter weather and an aver- 
age crop of spring wheat, would insure for 1919 a 
wheat production of over a billion bushels, an excess 
over that of 1918 of probably 200,000,000 bushels. 

All the principal kinds of live stock — ^horses and 
mules, in spite of the big exportation to Europe for 
army needs; milk cows, other cattle, hogs, and even 
sheep for the first time in many years — were in- 
creased in number by from one to twelve millions. 
Meat, milk and wool production showed signal in- 
crease, that of beef of a million pounds and of pork 
twice that amount. 

The zeal of the whole country for increased food 
production appeared not only in the multiplied thou- 
sands of war gardens, the desire of every one who had 
access even to a few feet of soil to make something 
eatable grow upon it, and the immensely increased 
acreage devoted to the sorely needed cereal crops, 
but also in a striking growth of interest in agricul- 
tural matters of all sorts, whether of farm or garden. 
To all such subjects newspapers and magazines began 
devoting much more than usual attention, while for 
books dealing with them publishers noted a sharply 
increased demand. 

The Food Administration was so organized as to 
decentralize its operations as much as possible and 
bring them into direct touch with the people. Under 
the United States Food Administrator, and also ap- 
pointed by the President, was a food administrator 



FEEDING THE NATIONS 241 

for each state who selected one for each county in his 
state. These county administrators in turn ap- 
pointed special committees or committee chairmen to 
keep track of and solve local food problems and to 
keep each locality in touch with the aims and opera- 
tions of the national organization. Upon these local 
committees were representatives of local grain and 
food trades, of hotels and restaurants, of clubs and 
associations of various kinds and directors of educa- 
tional work. Through these assistants educational 
campaigns were aided and directed, close watch was 
kept to prevent both hoarding and profiteering and 
a nation-wide survey of the food situation was in con- 
stant progress. It was all voluntary service, from 
that of the United States Food Administrator down 
to the county chairmen and the local committees, 
given with enthusiasm and the best ability each could 
bring to the service, with the single-hearted hope of 
helping the nation to win the war. 

The primary purpose of the Food Administration 
was to make sure that there should be sufficient 
food to meet the needs of our fighting men on land 
and sea both at home and abroad, to provide such 
a supply for our people at home as would maintain 
them in health and comfort, and to furnish to the 
nations associated with us for their armies and civil- 
ians as much of our surplus as they might need. To 
make that surplus as large as possible called forth 
its most strenuous endeavor. In addition, it aimed 
to maintain an even supply of the essential foods and 
to stabilize prices by preventing, as far as possible, 
hoarding, speculation and profiteering. 

The problem of food for the Entente warring na- 
tions was reduced in the spring of 1917 to the de- 



242 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

termination of the amount of food that could be 
drawn from North America, of which, of course, the 
chief portion would come from the United States. 
The surplus over our normal consumption, in all 
classes of food, which we usually exported, had always 
been small and would have to be multiplied many 
times over in order to meet pressing needs, in order, 
even, to win the war. Moreover, we had diverted 
from eight to ten million men from their usual pro- 
ductive activities and set them to the making of war 
and supplies for war. 

The situation could be met only by a nation-wide 
program of conservation which would save vast quan- 
tities of the sorely needed food out of the usual prodi- 
gal consumption and waste of our own people. With 
complete confidence that the American people would 
respond of their own good will the conservation meas- 
ures were all made voluntary. People were asked 
to eat more carefully, to waste nothing, to use less 
wheat, meats, fats and sugar, to combine flour from 
other grains with wheat flour and especially to use 
more corn. Grocers were directed to see that their 
customers purchased pound for pound of these other 
materials and wheat flour. The nation was requested 
to reduce its sugar consumption by fifteen per cent 
and housewives and other buyers of food were told 
that it was necessary to limit their purchases of sugar 
to three pounds per month for each individual. 
Homes and hotels and restaurants were counseled to 
institute wheatless and meatless days. Appeal was 
made to all who had charge of the providing of food 
for others and to every individual consumer to waste 
no food of any sort. 

Pledges sent out by the Food Administration which 



FEEDING THE NATIONS 243 

bound every signer to observe its requests and rules 
were distributed by many thousands of volunteer 
workers, men, women and children, who saw in the 
work of securing signatures opportunity for patriotic 
service. Pamphlets and leaflets setting forth the rea- 
sons for what was asked, giving expert advice on the 
use of foods, analyzing the food situation, and urging 
compliance with the requests of the Food Administra- 
tion were sent all over the country. Posters con- 
tributed by well known artists were hung on hoard- 
ings, in windows, and on home and office walls in 
cities, towns, villages. There was hardly a newspaper 
or a magazine of any sort in the whole United States 
but freely gave space to the always cogent and in- 
teresting articles furnished in great quantity by the 
Food Administration in support of the purposes it 
had set itself to achieve. Speakers who could pre- 
sent in living words the urgent need of food and the 
crucial test laid upon the country of producing and 
saving immense quantities of meat, fats, wheat and 
sugar addressed general and special audiences in 
many cities. Experts in home economics gave lec- 
tures and demonstrations and conducted classes that 
were attended by thousands of women, rich and poor 
alike. Especial effort was made to furnish this sort 
of education to the women of poor and ignorant fami- 
lies in order that they might learn how to provide 
food that would give equal nourishment at less ex- 
pense. 

Colleges and schools aligned their vast educational 
equipment with the food production and conservation 
movement and gave important service. When the 
colleges and universities for women or admitting 
women were asked, at the end of 1917, if they would 



244 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

undertake to give special instruction looking toward 
the aiding of the Food Administration's purposes 
seven hundred of them, practically every such insti- 
tution in the country, replied within a week asking 
to be supplied at once with the necessary material. 
Courses were outlined and supplied, prepared by ex- 
perts upon the subjects, which dealt with the world 
food situation and the part the United States should 
take in it, with food values and the principles of nu- 
trition. During the winter and spring of 1918 
40,000 young women took these courses, which were 
repeated at summer schools in nearly all the colleges 
of the nation and were offered again in the autumn. 
They were also opened to men students, who saw in 
them a means of patriotic service. Under a secre- 
tary for each state appointed by the Food Adminis- 
tration, the graduates of these classes were organized 
and their services directed by the State Food Admin- 
istrator. They gave to local administrators and com- 
mittees efficient service of varied sort, depending 
upon the locality and the need of the moment. 

So successful was the initial work of the collegiate 
section of the Food Administration that its activities 
were soon enlarged to include the schools also and 
several text-books were prepared for use in both high 
and lower grades that would show to the pupils 
the relation of food to the war and the part they 
might play in the winning of the conflict and would 
inculcate the ideal of service. The National Educa- 
tional Association asked especially for such a text- 
book to be used by children below the high school 
grade and by means of an advisory committee co- 
operated with the Food Administration in its educa- 
tional program in the schools. So important and en- 



FEEDING THE NATIONS 245 

thusiastic was the work of the schools and colleges 
that a state director of their activities was appointed 
in each state to correlate their efforts with the other 
undertakings of the state food administrator and so 
make team-work for the production and conservation 
of food more thorough and efficient. 

The central offices of the Food Administration in 
"Washington expanded amazingly as the country- 
leaped to its support and asked for instruction, ad- 
vice and guidance. It began, a month or more after 
our entrance into the war, in two rooms, with a Food 
Administrator, whose office was informal and tenta- 
tive until Congress in August authorized the pro- 
gram of food control, and two or three assistants. 
By the first of January it filled a huge structure hold- 
ing over a thousand employees and in the following 
summer it crowded both this and another building 
of equal size. It finally had in its service nearly 
8,000 employees and under its coordinating hand were 
the purchase and control of food-stuffs whose value 
amounted to $300,000,000 per month. To its staff 
came men and women of expert knowledge from all 
over the country, many of them giving voluntary 
service, — university professors who were specialists in 
food and other economic subjects, journalists, maga- 
zine editors, office experts, scientists whose specialties 
would throw light upon one or another phase of the 
food problem. 

The Food Administration dealt with prices in the 
food trades, which were prevented from sky-rocketing 
above the levels caused by war conditions, and with 
speculation and profiteering by means of a system of 
licenses applying to all persons engaged in the im- 
portation, manufacture, storage and distribution of 



246 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

certain staple foods and including retailers doing 
more than $100,000 yearly business. The purpose of 
the system was to stabilize prices by limiting those 
charged to a reasonable amount over expense, by pre- 
venting the storing of food in large quantities in the 
hope of speculative profits on a rising market, by 
keeping all food commodities moving from producer 
to consumer with as little delay from unnecessary 
business transactions as possible and by limiting as 
far as practicable dealings in contracts for future de- 
livery. Every licensee was required to make reports 
of his dealings once a month and none was allowed 
to keep on hand or under control food-commodity 
supplies for more than a certain term in advance, set, 
with some exceptions, at sixty days. Retailers doing 
less than $100,000 business annually were exempt 
from the licensing system but were forbidden by the 
Food Control Act to hoard or waste food or to 
charge excessive prices. In the neighborhood of 100,- 
000 licenses were taken out and of all these only an 
insignificant percentage were ever found guilty of 
breaking the provisions of the law. Equally rare 
were attempts to break or evade the law by retail 
dealers. Nearly all of even these small numbers were 
brought back to right feeling and right action merely 
by confronting the violater with proof of his wrong 
doing. As punishment, if punishment was neces- 
sary, his license was revoked or suspended, or there 
was forced sale of his hoardings, or his place of busi- 
ness was closed for a period, or he was required to 
refund excess profits or to make a contribution to 
some patriotic organization. But the whole hearted 
desire to aid and cooperate with the Food Adminis- 
tration in its efforts to solve the food problem and 



FEEDING THE NATIONS 247 

meet the food necessities of the time was so nearly- 
universal that the few exceptions were noteworthy 
chiefly because they were so few. 

Under war conditions it was inevitable that prices 
for all food commodities should rise far above their 
level in pre-war years. But the control of the situa- 
tion which was kept by the Food Administration 
and the carefully organized and consolidated buying 
of our own and other governments, enormous beyond 
comparison with any market situation in all the his- 
tory of the world, reduced prices below what they 
were when we entered the war and kept them down to 
a level much lower than they would otherwise have 
reached. When we had been in the war for a year 
the Food Administration estimated that during that 
time the price of food commodities had decreased 
twelve per cent to the consumer and increased 
eighteen per cent to the producer. For instance, the 
price of flour, which reached a maximum in 1917 of 
$16.50 per barrel at the mill-door, at the end of 
April, 1918, stood at $10.50. Without the stabilizing 
influence of the Food Administration it would have 
mounted in that time, in the opinion of experts, to 
$40 or $50 per barrel. 

The plea to conserve food met with enthusiastic re- 
sponse. In the spring of 1918, when there was dire 
need of more wheat for export, whole towns and 
counties, in some of the states, pledged themselves to 
use no wheat until the new crop should be available. 
A conference of 500 managers of first-class hotels 
and restaurants voluntarily gave their pledge to one 
another and to the Food Administration to use no 
wheat flour in their kitchens until the next harvest 



248 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

was ready. Households innumerable throughout the 
land did the same thing. 

We entered the war with only 20,000,000 bushels 
of wheat available for export. The need grew sharp 
in England and France and Italy and we sent them 
141,000,000 bushels, having saved 121,000,000 bushels 
out of what we would ordinarily have eaten ourselves. 
Because the armies and the peoples across the ocean 
needed sugar, the request was sent forth that indi- 
vidual consumption of sugar should be limited to 
three and later to two pounds of sugar per month. 
Its consumption was voluntarily reduced by about 
one-third. In four months in the summer of 1918 we 
saved and sent abroad, out of our usual consumption, 
500,000 tons of sugar. Increased production and 
conservation were responsible for 1,600,000,000 more 
pounds of pork products ready for export in the fall 
of 1918 than were available the previous year, while 
for the three summer months of 1918 the records 
showed an increase of 190,000,000 pounds of dressed 
beef. 

An illuminating instance of the temper of the peo- 
ple in general toward conservation is afforded by the 
reports of railway dining cars for two months in the 
autumn of 1917, in which they saved out of their or- 
dinary consumption 468,000 pounds of meat, 238,000 
pounds of wheat flour and 35,000 pounds of sugar. 
During that time hotels and restaurants reported 
savings of 17,700,000 pounds of meat, 8,000,000 
pounds of flour and 2,000,000 pounds of sugar. That 
there was a very general attempt to lessen waste of 
food in cooking and eating was shown by the fact 
that nearly all cities reported a considerable de- 
crease, amounting in most of them to from ten to 




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o 

Oh 



o 



FEEDING THE NATIONS 249 

thirteen per cent, in the amount of garbage collected. 
Because at the very beginning of our participa- 
tion in the war we recognized the value of food, mo- 
bilized our food forces, enlisting the whole nation in 
voluntary service, and kept their operation under 
control for efficient war use, we were able to pour 
into Europe the food without which the Allied armies 
could not have continued their necessary effort and 
the populations behind them retained their health and 
morale. In the years before the war the United 
States sent an average of between 5,000,000 and 
6,000,000 tons of food to Europe each year. In the 
crop year of 1918 we doubled that amount, sending 
11,820,000 tons, and were prepared in the following 
year to send between 15,000,000 and 20,000,000 tons. 
In the midst of these bountiful harvests there were 
no food cards and the only rationing that was neces- 
sary was that prescribed by the individual conscience. 
But that conscience, with the universal enthusiasm 
for increasing production, enabled us to send to 
Europe in 1918 an increase over 1917 of $504,000,000 
in the value of meat and dairy products and of $170,- 
000,000 in breadstuffs. Our total contribution in 
1918 to the food needs of Europe amounted approxi- 
mately to a value of $2,000,000,000. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

THE MANAGEMENT OF FUEL 

IN the world war fuel fought, and food, and steel, 
as well as men. Fuel quickly became as much of 
a fighting necessity as were the munitions which could 
not be made without it and the food for whose trans- 
portation it was necessary. It was a war of manufac- 
tures, of applied science, and the foundations of 
both are laid in fuel. And therefore fuel, which 
means chiefly coal, had to be mobilized for war and 
its production and distribution so managed that its 
potency could be applied where needed and when 
needed without unnecessary detriment to civilian wel- 
fare. During the first months of our participation 
in the war and for nearly a year previous there had 
been a menacing coal situation in which the increasing 
demand for coal, inadequate transportation and stor- 
age facilities and other causes had combined to send 
prices to four and even five times their former level 
and to cause uneasiness and dissatisfaction among 
consumers and in the ranks of both labor and capital. 
As soon as Congress gave the necessary authority, in 
August, 1917, the President fixed schedules of pro- 
visional prices and appointed a Fuel Administrator 
for the United States. 

Before the Fuel Administration was created there 
had unfortunately been published unauthorized and 

250 



THE MANAGEMENT OF FUEL 251 

■unwarranted assurance of prospective better condi- 
tions in the coal situation which had led many to 
postpone their usual summer and autumn purchases. 
When the winter set in, at an unusually early date, 
with its unprecedentedly long continued and bitter 
cold and frequent storms, this delay on the part of 
so many buj'-ers added much to the universal difficul- 
ties and discomforts. To all the usual demand for 
coal and the extraordinary demand due to the un- 
wonted weather, there were added the large and in- 
creasing fuel needs for war manufacture, for the 
bunkering of ships, for the heating of the many 
cantonments and camps, each a goodly sized city in 
itself, and other war activities. And with all this 
increased demand, there were fewer workers in the 
mines, for many had joined the fighting forces or gone 
to work in munition factories, and transportation 
facilities were disorganized by the strain upon them 
and disabled by storms and zero weather. This was 
the situation with which the Fuel Administration 
was contending three months after it began its work. 
The total coal production of the country during 
1917 amounted to 651,402,000 net tons, of which ap- 
proximately 100,000,000 tons were anthracite and the 
rest bituminous. This was an increase over all pre- 
vious production records of more than 60,000,000 tons, 
but it did not meet the ever increasing demands of 
the war machine, whose requirements for bituminous 
coal for 1918 went above this amount by nearly 100,- 
000,000 tons. It was necessary to stir production in 
the mines to utmost endeavor, to facilitate that pro- 
duction by prompt and adequate distribution and to 
induce such fuel saving among consumers as would 
supplement production sufficiently to meet war needs. 



252 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTEES 

Not only was there a decrease of many thousands in 
the number of men employed in the production of 
coal, but also in many mines efficiency was lessened 
by the hatreds and suspicions of the different racial 
representatives — Magyar, Pole, Italian, Slovak, Jugo- 
slav, with their animosities bred in the bone, brought 
with them from Europe and fanned into fresh activity 
by the war. Each furbished up anew his old grudge 
and carried it on his shoulder, where it quickly re- 
ceived the knocking it challenged, and old racial bat- 
tles were fought over again while the mining of coal 
was laid aside. 

To better conditions and stimulate effort a Produc- 
tion Bureau was formed in the Fuel Administration 
whose representatives were sent to every mine. There 
they worked with and through a committee composed 
of mine operators and mine workers. The Bureau 
bent its energies incessantly to the influencing of 
mine operators and managers to establish such con- 
ditions and methods as would keep the miners satis- 
fied and busy and of the miners to put forth their 
utmost efforts. Its representatives dealt tactfully 
with the racial hatreds, using the foreign language 
newspapers read by each group and also dealing with 
individual men in person, allaying suspicions, and 
showing each group what the success of the Allied 
and American armies would mean for its people in 
Europe. Officials of the United Mine Workers 
toured the mining regions, addressing the workers, 
informing the men on the questions involved in the 
war and urging them to do their best. Other speak- 
ers, including men returned from army service in 
France, went up and down through the mining re- 
gions, holding meetings, talking to the workers. The 



THE MANAGEMENT OF FUEL 253 

President's proclamation addressed to all engaged in 
coal mining and appeals from other men of influence 
among them were distributed everywhere. 

The result was a hearty response from the mining 
men. They dealt amicably with the production com- 
mittees, they kept the peace with their racial enemies, 
they agreed to forego holidays and the usual laying 
off for funeral days, they worked even on Labor Day, 
they plunged into the increased production program 
with enthusiasm, they worked more efficiently and 
many old men who had quit active work on account 
of age voluntarily took up again the pick and shovel. 
The average number of days worked by each miner 
in the bituminous fields was increased over that of 
the previous year by twelve and by twenty-five over 
that of 1916. From week to week during the sum- 
mer and fall of 1918, until November, the weekly pro- 
duction of coal showed an increase in the neighbor- 
hood of a million tons over the same week in the pre- 
vious year. During the half-year period from the 
first of April to the end of September more coal was 
mined than ever before in any half year in the his- 
tory of the American coal industry. In that time 
the bituminous production was twelve per cent 
greater than in the corresponding period in 1917, 
which had itself established a record. 

As important as increased production in the mines 
was the rapid distribution of coal as soon as it was 
brought to the surface. Coal is not commercially 
produced until it is distributed, for coal dumped 
at the mine mouth or lying in cars on railroad 
switches is of no more use to the consumer than that 
still underground. It was mainly the efficient work 
of the Railroad Administration that brought order 



254 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

and successful achievement into this phase of the war 
coal situation. The manner in which it relieved the 
freight congestion which had paralyzed traffic dur- 
ing the last months of 1917 is described in the chapter 
on * ' Running the Railroads. ' ' By the prompt actions 
it took it released the tied-up trains of coal, sent them 
to their destination and made possible the swift, 
economical and steady service of all cars available 
for the carrying of coal from mines to consumers' 
bins. 

But so much in excess of possible production was 
the amount of coal that was urgently necessary for 
war making purposes that only a great and general 
program of coal saving would prevent the slacking 
of our war effort. The Fuel Administrator turned 
at once to the American people, confident that, if 
they understood the need, they would voluntarily en- 
deavor to meet it. Articles explaining the situation 
and showing why it was necessary for consumers to 
save in the neighborhood of fifty million tons of coal 
during the next few months in newspapers and maga- 
zines, all of which throughout the country cordially 
cooperated with the Fuel Administration, brought the 
responsibility of the continuing of the nation's prose- 
cution of the war straight to the feet of every indi- 
vidual user of coal, gas and electricity. Widely cir- 
culated leaflets urged conservation of coal and post- 
ers that met the eye at every turn emphasized their 
message. Instructions were published in periodicals 
of every sort for the economical but equally efficient 
use of coal in manufacturing and domestic furnaces, 
in kitchen ranges and household stoves. To save 
each day at least one shovelful of coal was laid upon 
the conscience of every consumer. 



THE MANAGEMENT OF FUEL 255 

So-called ''lightless nights" were established on 
which was forbidden the use of electricity, gas, oil, or 
coal for the illumination or display of windows, ad- 
vertisements or signs and street lighting was reduced 
to the minimum necessary for safety. In order to 
aid in the conserving of coal by reducing the amount 
of artificial light necessary, the daylight saving meas- 
ure was passed by Congress and the clocks moved 
ahead for an hour from the end of March to the end 
of October. Non-war industries had their consump- 
tion of coal curtailed. 

In January, 1918, the public east of the Mississippi 
Kiver was asked to observe a series of so-called ''heat- 
less days" in which there should be no consumption 
of fuel except for absolutely necessary uses. The 
purpose was to make possible the bunkering of two 
hundred and fifty ships at eastern ports laden with 
food and war materials for Europe, but unable to 
move for lack of coal. There was dire need of their 
cargoes in France. The United States Government 
had been told that the Western Allies could not con- 
tinue their war effort unless these cargoes were de- 
livered on the other side of the Atlantic in the quick- 
est possible time. For a five-day period in January 
and for each following Monday for several weeks the 
Fuel Administration asked commerce and industry to 
forego as far as possible the burning of coal in order 
that it might give priority for deliveries of coal to 
the waiting ships and to the newly established Rail- 
road Administration, struggling with ice-covered 
tracks, frozen engines and storm-tied trains, a little 
time in which to relieve the congestion of cars and 
set in motion long lines of stalled coal trains. The 
"heatless day" period was loyally observed and by 



256 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

the day after it ended every one of the two hundred 
and fifty ships had bunkered and was speeding across 
the ocean to deliver its sorely needed cargo. There 
had also been accumulated a stock of coal for the 
equally necessary bunkering of the other ships that 
came and went in a steady stream to supply the de- 
mands of war. 

For all these measures the response of the public 
was immediate and willing. Manufacturers of non- 
essentials voluntarily offered to curtail operation if 
by so doing they could aid the nation ^s war effort. 
Domestic consumers reduced their lights and watched 
their furnaces and stoves as they had never done 
before, and everywhere any attempt on the part of 
merchants, corporations or private individuals to use 
light or fuel in excess of the Fuel Administration's 
requests and rules was frowned down by the public. 

The Oil Division of the Fuel Administration played 
so important a part in the final success of the Allied 
and Associated nations that if it was true, as a Brit- 
ish authority declared, that *'we floated to victory 
on a sea of oil," the credit belongs largely to the 
men who directed the American oil supply, for the 
Western front was dependent almost wholly upon oil 
from America. There was a constantly increasing 
production of crude oil, which was speeded by all 
possible methods, and the proportion of gasoline ex- 
tracted was continually being increased. Oil-burn- 
ing vessels in the British, French, Italian and Ameri- 
can navies needed the oil and the Motor Transport 
Services of all the armies needed immense and rapidly 
increasing quantities of gasoline. Oil production 
was increased in 1918 to 344,000,000 barrels, which 
was 50,000,000 barrels more than it had been in 1914. 



THE MANAGEMENT OF FUEL 257 

To provide transportation a fleet of oil tankers was 
built and when the war closed over half the gross 
tonnage of tankers in service was American. 

Gasoline this country sent across the ocean in an 
ever increasing flood which grew in 1917 by a million 
and a half of barrels over the previous year and in 
1918 amounted to 13,312,000 barrels, an increase of 
more than 9,000 barrels per day over that sent in the 
previous year. But so sharp grew the need for it at 
the front in the summer of 1918 that restriction had 
to be put upon its use at home. The Allied forces 
warned by cable that without increased and early de- 
liveries of gasoline their plans were likely to collapse. 
Marshal Foch's cablegram said bluntly, "If you don't 
keep up your petroleum supply we shall lose the 
war." Immediate saving of gasoline was the only 
answer to the necessity and the Fuel Administration 
asked the people living east of the Mississippi River 
to forego the use of motor-propelled vehicles, ex- 
cept for specified necessary purposes, on Sundays. 
Compliance was voluntary and for military reasons 
the public could not be told how dire was the neces- 
sity. 

But so immediate and universal was the response 
that from every section reports showed that Sunday 
motoring was almost wholly abandoned, the reduc- 
tion being from 75 to 99 per cent. During the nearly 
two months that the restriction continued it was esti- 
mated that a saving had been made of approximately 
1,000,000 barrels of gasoline, of which more than 
500,000 barrels, ten shiploads, had been sent over- 
seas. 

A comprehensive plan was worked out by the Fuel 
Administration for the saving of fuel by conservation 



258 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

of light and power which enlisted the aid of a force 
of engineers and of other departments of the Govern- 
ment. A study was made by inspectors and engineers 
of conditions in large manufacturing concerns and in 
public utilities plants all over the country which 
brought about, by the willing cooperation of their 
managers, such rearrangements of machinery and ap- 
pliances, elimination of duplicating plants and of 
unnecessary expenses as resulted in important sav- 
ings, ranging from ten to thirty per cent in the 
amount of coal consumed, without interfering with 
the output. The Fuel Administration urged the 
generation of electric energy from water power in- 
stead of steam wherever possible, and enough plants 
made the change to effect a considerable saving in 
coal consumption. 

A zone system for the distribution of bituminous 
coal providing for the supply of each section of the 
country from the nearest mines, put into operation 
by the Fuel and Railroad Administrations together, 
eliminated approximately 160,000,000 car miles and 
affected more than half of the total distribution of 
bituminous coal. The overcoming of this waste in 
transportation made possible the swifter and steadier 
use of rolling stock, thus speeding deliveries and 
more quickly returning cars and engines to the mines 
for new loads, and made more effective the railroad 
consumption of coal, which amounts to about twenty- 
five per cent of the coal production of the country. 

The organization of the Fuel Administration 
stretched out in a network that touched every com- 
munity. The fuel administrator of each state, work- 
ing under the national organization, had under him 
administrators and local committees for cities and 



THE MANAGEMENT OF FUEL 259 

counties whose duty it was to keep in constant touch 
with the supplies and the needs of their own locali- 
ties. Upon their reports the state administrator ap- 
portioned the supply to be allowed each locality and 
upon their investigations into business costs were 
based the maximum local retail prices of coal to be 
charged. The fixing of local retail prices was in 
addition to the regulation of prices at the mines and 
violators of either, whether mine operators, jobbers 
or retailers, were made to refund their excess profits 
and were then turned over to the Department of Jus- 
tice for prosecution. Each of the several divisions 
of the work of the Fuel Administration, in addition 
to that of fuel distribution, such as conservation, pro- 
duction and oil, was organized by districts or special- 
ized bureaus for intensive and effective work. 

Economies urged by the Fuel Administration re- 
sulted in the saving during the first half of 1918 of 
12,700,000 tons of coal. Although the coal mining in- 
dustry lost 100,000 or more workers to other war in- 
dustries and to the fighting forces, the speeding pro- 
gram of the Fuel Administration resulted in a pro- 
duction of bituminous coal during 1918 of 585,883,- 
000 tons, setting a new high record and exceeding 
the production of the previous year by 34,000,000 
tons. Notwithstanding the enormous and constantly 
growing increase there had been throughout the pre- 
ceding eighteen months in the consumption of coal 
for war purposes, at the end of hostilities the coun- 
try faced the approaching winter with stocks of coal 
on hand greatly in excess of previous years. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

THE SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE 

THERE could not have been a spirit more eager 
for service, more inspired by patriotic zeal, 
more willing to do whatever would aid the Govern- 
ment in its prosecution of the war or support the 
efforts of the fighting forces than was manifest among 
the great masses of the American people. "Whatever 
they were asked to give to provide the means of war, 
whether by taxation, by buying of bonds, by out- 
right gift, by sacrifice, by personal effort, they gave 
with ungrudging heart and overflowing hands. They 
offered their sacrifices and volunteered their effort 
without waiting to be asked and they spontaneously 
aligned themselves in every organized activity for the 
war and joined their voluntary efforts together for 
the nation-wide team-work that alone would make it 
a success. The sense of personal responsibility, the 
understanding of the importance of individual effort, 
had a new birth in their hearts and the deep-lying 
springs of love of country gushed forth anew at the 
call of her need. There could not have been a more 
triumphant vindication of the worth to humanity of 
American institutions and American ideals than was 
given by the spirit manifested by the American peo- 
ple throughout our participation in the world war. 
So high, eager and intense, indeed, was the general 

260 



THE SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE 261 

wish for rapid progress in war production and war 
making that its desires frequently outran possibilities 
and led many to demand results that only a miracle 
could produce. 

Men of trade, industry, engineering, of all manner 
of business and professional life willingly agreed to 
the curtailment, even the complete stopping of their 
own affairs if the Government needed their services, 
their supply of coal, or their raw materials for its 
war production, or turned to its uses the ships in 
which they were accustomed to import or export their 
goods. In and out of the various committees, boards 
and administrations that directed the country's busi- 
ness life for war purposes went a constant stream of 
these men, anxious only to serve their country and 
ready to make any sacrifice for America's sake. 
''Tell me what you want, let me know what I can 
do, and I'll do it," was their unvarying appeal. 
Every official and every civilian in the temporary 
service of the Government who came into contact with 
the business and professional men of the country will 
bear witness to the patriotic and self-sacrificing spirit 
that was shown by them from the moment the nation 
entered the war. Over and over again these officials, 
permanent and temporary, have said to the writer of 
this book, in answer to her inquiry as to the spirit 
of those of whom they had had to ask sacrifices of 
this sort: ''They've been splendid" — "Their spirit 
couldn't have been finer and more patriotic" — "My 
experiences with them have made me prouder than 
ever to be an American and a fellow citizen of such 
men. ' ' 

Great numbers of these men, scores of them, lead- 
ers in all kinds of business, experts in technical and 



262 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

engineering fields, gave up their high-salaried posi- 
tions or left their offices in charge of subordinates 
and offered their services to the Government. It 
was a war in which the scientific expert at home, the 
man of business, the engineer, was of equal conse- 
quence with the fighting man and the sum of the 
ability, the knowledge and the experience thus put 
into the hands of the Government could not have been 
purchased at its market value for millions of dollars. 

As the Government is forbidden to accept free 
service they were paid a nominal sum and were 
known as ''The Government's dollar-a-year men.'' 
Putting their own affairs aside they worked with zeal, 
long hours and incessantly, drawing upon their 
knowledge and their connections, making engage- 
ments and holding conferences indifferently for noon 
or midnight, that the nation might get itself upon a 
war footing quickly and efficiently and make its war 
stroke mighty and decisive. The chairman of one 
of the Government boards who had come in contact 
with many of these men and was familiar with their 
private position and importance in the business world 
estimated that they were sacrificing profits and sala- 
ries that would aggregate as much as $30,000,000 
per year. 

The response was equally zealous in every phase of 
life. Periodicals of every sort — daily and weekly 
papers, magazines, trade journals — opened their col- 
umns for the publication of articles that made known 
what the Government needed and thus circulated far 
and wide, through city, town and country, informa- 
tion concerning the need for food production and 
food conservation and how these could be accom- 
plished, and how and why fuel should be saved, con- 



THE SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE 263 

cerning the Red Cross, Liberty Loans, "War Saving 
Stamps, pro-German propaganda. They gave the 
use of their advertising columns for campaigns for 
the collecting of money for war sufferers and for the 
big-brothering of our own fighting men. An expert 
estimate of the value of this donated space put it at 
$2,000,000. Hundreds of pages for these and similar 
purposes were paid for also by business firms. De- 
partment stores gave the use of show windows for 
displays that would aid war work and war relief or- 
ganizations. Artists and illustrators turned their 
pencils and brushes to the work of making posters and 
illustrations for the Food and Fuel Administrations, 
the Labor Department, the Shipping Board, the Lib- 
erty Loan and Savings Stamps campaigns, and other 
work that would aid in prosecution of the war, giv- 
ing in all about three thousand poster designs, car- 
toons, paintings and drawings. 

Chambers of Commerce and other business organ- 
izations had their war service committees which were 
on the alert for ways in which such bodies or their 
individual members could serve the nation. There 
was hardly a woman's club in the whole country but 
had its committee for war work which brought its 
members into line for war service of varied sorts. 
Churches and religious bodies set themselves to raise 
money and to give personal services that would be 
not only contributions toward the winning of the 
war but would also be of deep and abiding influence 
upon the national life. Their members and commit- 
tees held meetings to further the cause of America 
in the great war, distributed war literature, fur- 
nished workers for the various campaigns for war 
purposes and war relief, gave Bibles by the hundred 



264 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

thousand to the fighting forces and in the quicken- 
ing of Christian spirit which was born out of the 
tense emotions of the time the various denominations 
united their hearts and hands as they had never 
done before in common service for the needs of the 
country. 

Young people and children were anxious to do 
their share, however small, in work for the war. 
The Boy Scouts were especially efficient and eager in 
many kinds of service. They sold millions of dol- 
lars' worth of Thrift and War Savings Stamps; they 
gave noteworthy aid in every Liberty Loan cam- 
paign, securing over a million subscriptions; they 
were active and helpful in the uncovering of certain 
forms of enemy activity; they located for the Gov- 
ernment quantities of walnut trees and groves whose 
timber was much needed for airplane and gunstock 
production. Girl Scouts also were busy and use- 
ful in the Liberty Loan campaigns, in the selling 
of Thrift and War Stamps, the cultivating of war 
gardens, the making of sandwiches and dainties for 
hospitals and canteens and in Red Cross service. In 
the School Garden Army for the summer of 1918 
there were enrolled 1,500,000 children under sixteen 
years of age whose garden work produced an amount 
of food worth an average of $10 for each child. When 
the armistice was signed the plans were well under 
way for the tripling of that number of members 
for the following year. The Boys' Working Reserve, 
which admitted only boys over sixteen, had 250,000 
members who spent the summer of 1918 in work on 
farms and in truck gardens. Boy Scouts and Girl 
Scouts and other boys' and girls' clubs diligently 
collected nut shells and fruit pits needed for the 



THE SPIEIT OF THE PEOPLE 265 

making of gas masks. In schools all over tlie coun- 
try children to the number of nearly 10,000,000, from 
the kindergarten to the high school, were enrolled 
in the Junior Red Cross and as its members they 
sewed and knitted and folded bandages, raised money 
for its service in many ingenious ways, saved food 
and money and salvaged all manner of household 
wastes. As "Victory Boys" and ''Victory Girls" 
they enlisted by the thousands to aid in the great 
campaign which in November, 1918, raised over $200,- 
000,000 as a war-chest for the seven chief welfare 
organizations working with the American fighting 
forces, each one of them agreeing to earn a certain 
amount for this war service. 

The great body of industrial workers, with few 
and unimportant exceptions, united in the single- 
hearted and patriotic purpose that moved the whole 
country. There were some frictions and difficulties, 
due in part to the workings of enemy agents among 
them, in part to the influence of racial animosities 
among those recently come from Europe and in part 
to the rapidly rising costs of living. There was 
also in the early months among the foreign born 
lack of understanding of the issues at stake and 
the reasons for America's participation in the war. 
But adequate information, the clearing out of enemy 
influences and the efforts of the War Labor Admin- 
istration to make equitable adjustments of all diffi- 
culties between employees and manufacturers soon 
brought the great mass of workers to enthusiastic 
support of the nation's war efforts. 

The wonderful story of the financing of the war 
would have no chapter more interesting and thrill- 
ing, if only the facts concerning it could be gath- 



266 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

ered together, than that which would relate the 
aid given by industrial workers the country over 
who bought bonds and stamps to the full extent of 
their ability. The enthusiasm and unanimity they 
showed in shipyards, munition plants, coal mines 
and all places engaged in war production work 
proved their appreciation of the ideals at stake. In 
one large munitions plant they worked on Labor 
Day, offering their time without compensation, in 
order to give to that holiday a new and more solemn 
significance. In many manufacturing concerns, ship- 
yards and mines they were willing to forego all the 
usual holidays in order to increase the output. In 
plant after plant the employees pledged themselves 
to work steadily without stop or hindrance and to 
give their utmost endeavors to their share of the 
upholding of the men who had gone overseas. Mem- 
bers of the War Labor Administration who took 
part in the adjustment of difficulties were enthusias- 
tic in their commendation of the loyal spirit shown 
by the great body of employees and their desire 
to give their full and hearty support to the Govern- 
ment's program of production for war purposes. 

In nothing did the spirit of the people have more 
enthusiastic and practical expression than in the ef- 
fort to increase the production of food which enlisted 
the services of men, women and children in every 
walk of life, in cities, towns, villages and country 
regions, from end to end of the land. It has already 
been told, in '' Feeding the Nations," how marvel- 
ously that production of food was increased. Farm- 
ers everywhere, under the spur of the great need, 
added, if they could, to the area of their cultivation, 
worked longer hours, and endeavored to improve 



THE SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE 267 

their metliods, while their wives and children took 
charge of barn-yard chores. Business men in coun- 
try towns cooperated by lending financial assistance 
where it was needed. In agricultural states whole 
communities, or even whole counties, sometimes or- 
ganized themselves upon a sort of cooperative basis 
for increase of food production, people in the towns 
providing needed labor and money. 

Business and professional men frequently took 
their vacations or spent week-ends upon farms, lend- 
ing a hand in farm labor. Women took up farm 
work and, as told in ''The Work of Women for the 
War,'' a goodly sized army of them aided in the 
raising of more crops. The home war garden move- 
ment swept the country with enthusiasm and in the 
summer of 1918 planted over 5,000,000 home plots 
that produced more than $500,000,000 worth of food. 
In New York City there were in that year 64,000 of 
these home war gardens, besides the school gardens, 
the number exceeding even that of the gardens of 
London. The patriotic, mounting spirit of the peo- 
ple caused the tillage in 1918 of an increase in food 
producing acreage of 10,700,000 acres, whose produce 
excelled the value of that of the previous year, itself 
a record, by $614,000,000. 

There was everywhere the greatest eagerness to 
do anything for the men of the Army and the Navy 
that would give them help or pleasure. The story 
of the organized effort for that purpose is told in 
''Big Brothering the Fighting Forces." But, in 
addition, there were numberless movements of smaller 
scope that enlisted the aid of many people. Hun- 
dreds of thousands bought "smileage tickets," for 
seats in camp and cantonment theaters, and donated 



268 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

them to welfare organizations for distribution among 
soldiers and sailors. Many newspapers, clubs and 
business concerns collected money for the "smokes'' 
of which the Army and the Navy consumed enor- 
mous quantities. The support of these tobacco funds 
enlisted the aid of men, women and children who 
gave money, organized entertainments, solicited help, 
did a thousand things to help swell the total. The 
value of the tobacco, cigars and cigarettes thus con- 
tributed for the comfort of our soldiers and sailors 
amounted to many hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

The navy needed binoculars, opera glasses and 
telescopes, and over 50,000 patriotic Americans sent 
their instruments. Quantities of musical instruments 
were donated for use in camps and at sea. The work 
of collecting and distributing phonographs and rec- 
ords was organized into a system that included the 
whole country, and machines by the hundred and 
disks by the thousand were given or loaned to it or 
bought for it and sent out to camps and hospitals, 
to troop transports, battleships, cruisers, destroyers 
and in great quantities to the men overseas. The 
Over-There Theater League, organized and directed 
by men prominent in theatrical affairs, included 
among its members and supporters practically all 
the theatrical managers and the important people of 
the stage in the United States, all of whom gave 
their services for the providing of theatrical en- 
tertainment for the men overseas. Moving picture 
actors and managers contributed services to the Lib- 
erty Loan campaigns and other phases of war ef- 
fort. 

Old men and women who were too disabled to do 
anything else joined the ranks of the knitters and 



THE SPIRIT OP THE PEOPLE 269 

made helmets, sweaters and mufflers, to go with the 
mountainous stacks of these articles made for the 
Army and the Navy. Hundreds of ministers, college 
and university professors and other professional and 
business men spent in the shipyards, or in muni- 
tions factories or on the farms their summer vaca- 
tions of from two to twelve weeks, while some of 
them even gave up their positions in order to remain 
in this most necessary work. Many people owning 
country homes or estates turned them over to the 
Government to he used as hospitals or convalescent 
homes for wounded men. Every community in or 
near which were camps of any sort opened its homes 
to the soldiers and sailors and gave them hospitality, 
friendship, entertainment. 

When the Eed Cross asked for 5,000 tons of cloth- 
ing for the destitute in France and Belgium the 
people gave it 10,000 tons. Successful men of busi- 
ness gave their time, their experience, their best 
thought and work to the directing of relief organiza- 
tions. There were many of these, perhaps two score, 
in addition to the seven most important and every 
one of them was generously supported. So willing 
were the pe'ople to give that crooks and criminals 
made rich harvests by collecting money under false 
pretenses. Many millions of dollars were stolen in 
this way whose givers believed it was to be used for 
the benefit of their country's fighting men. It was 
estimated by those familiar with the work of the 
relief organizations that the American people con- 
tributed for these several welfare purposes close to 
$4,000,000,000. 

Throughout the war the American people gave 
whatever was needed for its prosecution, whether 



270 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

themselves, their loved ones, their energy, their la- 
bor, their time, their thought or their money, with 
an ever increasing ardor of patriotism and intensity 
of purpose. A spendthrift and wasteful nation dis- 
ciplined itself to the practice of care and economy, 
and a nation of individualists, jealous of personal 
rights, acceded willingly to Government interference 
in private business and Government control of busi- 
ness relations for the sake of the country's need. 
Hating war with a profound unanimity of feeling 
and conviction, the whole people joined hands with 
an equal depth of conviction and feeling that this war 
must be pushed through to a victorious conclusion in 
the quickest possible time. 

The spirit of the American soldiers at Belleau 
Wood and in the Argonne Forest was the same spirit 
that animated the people at home and it brought the 
whole nation into a closer union and a more under- 
standing comradeship than it had ever previously 
known. In the army at the front were three hundred' 
thousand negroes, among the most valiant of its 
fighters; representatives of fourteen tribes of In- 
dians, as contemptuous of death as any of their fore- 
fathers and as devoted to their country as any of 
their comrades; men of almost every racial strain 
under the sun, and all of them loyal soldiers of 
America. And, just as all these troops in uniform 
were joined together in the democracy of their cru- 
sading spirit, so all the people of the nation behind 
them were joined together in feeling and effort and 
purpose — the purpose that America should win the 
war for democracy's sake, the utmost effort needed 
to realize that aim, a passionate patriotism that 
blazed at white heat in every heart. 



THE SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE 271 

The occasional rumbles of dissatisfaction that were 
heard in some of the centers of alien population dur- 
ing the first months of our participation in the war, 
due chiefly to enemy propaganda of one or another 
form, soon ceased as better information was spread 
among them and the country's cause had no more 
whole-hearted and self-sacrificing support than was 
given by those same crowded centers of foreign born 
people. Thoroughly representative of this rapidly 
changing spirit and of our foreign-born citizens 
throughout the land was the East Side of New York 
City, where German propaganda and disloyal so- 
cialism together did their best to create trouble. But 
the American Army contained no better and more 
valiant soldiers and none more inspired by the cru- 
sading spirit than the thousands of lads from that 
region, whose unyielding courage, soldierly qualities 
and loyalty to their comrades in battle won the 
praise of all who shared with them the dangers of 
shell fire, gas and machine gun bullets. 

And just as fine and staunch in its different way 
was the patriotism of their families at home, for 
whom the absence of their men meant much self- 
sacrifice and even sometimes serious financial 
troubles. But they proudly hung their service flags 
in their windows and supported the Government's 
war program in every way in their power. Their 
purchases of thrift and war stamps constantly in- 
creased and in the second Liberty Loan campaign 
they more than doubled their subscription to the 
first, in the third they multiplied their subscription 
to the second by sixty and in the fourth they more 
than trebled their subscription to the third, buying 
in it $50,000,000 worth of bonds. 



272 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

It was on the East Side of New York City that 
the ** block party" had its birth — uniqiie fruit of 
the war and symbolic of the war's influence upon 
the people of the nation. For such a party all the 
people living in a block, or several adjoining blocks, 
decorated their houses and the street with flags, col- 
ored lanterns, ropes of greens, bright fabrics; and 
on the appointed night everybody swarmed into the 
street and to the accompaniment of music and cheers 
speeches were made, a huge service flag, with a star 
for every man of the block in service, was strung 
across the street and then all the nations and races 
represented among them told one another the news 
they had heard from their soldier and sailor lads, 
sang patriotic songs and danced on the pavement 
and sidewalk all the rest of the evening. Soon the 
block party spread to all parts of the city and estab- 
lished itself even in the exclusive residence districts 
where men, women and children, janitors and those 
whom they served, house maids and mistresses, met 
on the pavements, talked and sang and cheered and 
danced together as the service flag of their block was 
swung to its place and floated above them, their bond 
of union in common devotion to their country. 

The block party, although it did not make its ap- 
pearance in just that form in all sections, yet was 
significant of what was taking place in the hearts of 
the people all over the land. For out of their uni- 
versal spirit and its white heat of devotion was being 
born a fresh realization of democracy and of its 
meaning to humanity and a new dedication to its 
ideals. 



CHAPTER XXX 

LABOR AND THE WAR 

SUCH vast quantities of manufactured products — 
machines, munitions, clothing, food, supplies of 
every sort — were consumed in the war and had to be 
speedily produced for immediate destruction that for 
the first time in the history of the world the forces 
of production at home became of as much conse- 
quence for the winning of the war as were the fight- 
ing forces at the front. This fact, because it was 
so new a feature of warfare, was not at first recog- 
nized by the Entente Allies in its full significance 
and consequently their efforts lost much in possible 
effectiveness during the first year or more of the 
struggle. Nor did the United States at once realize 
the necessity of mobilizing the productive forces and 
directing their employment along lines that made for 
martial efficiency. But the first few months of war 
effort developed friction between employers and em- 
ployed, competition in the bidding for labor by the 
various war agencies of the Government and the pri- 
vate employers engaged in production of war necessi- 
ties, bungling and waste in the distribution of labor 
and a tendency to backsliding in labor conditions. 
The Government had become the greatest employer of 
labor in the world and it soon became evident that 
to correlate the activities of all its war making agen- 

273 



274 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

cies and induce efficient cooperation between them 
and private employers new macliinery would have to 
be devised for the handling of the forces of produc- 
tion. 

For this purpose there was created the War Labor 
Administration, including in its machinery and its 
duties those of the Department of Labor, but ex- 
panding such of them as dealt with labor in its re- 
lation to the war and adding others that would meet 
new needs and aid in the solution of new problems, 
with the Secretary of Labor as its responsible head. 
In order to carry out the immensely enlarged pro- 
gram which war emergencies made necessary in a 
broad, comprehending and cooperative spirit, the 
Secretary called to his assistance an Advisory Coun- 
cil whose members represented all phases of interest 
in industrial work. To its preliminary study and 
careful planning was due in large measure the effi- 
cient and harmonious working of the big undertak- 
ings of the War Labor Administration. By its ad- 
vice and as a part of the machinery for the correla- 
tion of effort there was devised the War Labor Poli- 
cies Board on which were represented the War, Navy, 
Agriculture and Labor Departments, the Fuel, Food 
and Railroad Administrations, the U. S. Shipping 
Board Emergency Fleet Corporation and the War 
Industries Board, and to which were attached ad- 
visers representing labor, business management and 
technical fields. It unified labor policies and har- 
monized the industrial activities of the different 
branches of the Government, ensuring more efficient 
team-work for the prosecution of the war. 

The War Labor Policies Board was thus the or- 
ganization through which spoke the voice of all the 



LABOR AND THE WAR 275 

industrial agencies of the Government and behind its 
administration of industrial relations was all the 
power of the Government. It worked out a national 
policy for the distribution of labor which was ex- 
ecuted through the agency of the United States Em- 
ployment Service. By means of conferences between 
the representatives of organized labor and industrial 
management it did much toward the standardizing 
and stabilizing of wages. It endeavored to bring 
about proper standards and satisfactory conditions 
of labor. By anti-child-labor regulations in all Gov- 
ernment contracts it kept a restraining hand on the 
evident tendency toward employment of children 
that had been induced on the part of employers by 
the need for labor and on the part of parents by the 
possibility of greatly increased earnings. It adopted 
a policy toward the employment of women in indus- 
try which aimed to keep women out of unfit occupa- 
tions and to provide such standards and conditions 
in the occupations to which they were admitted as 
would conserve their health and welfare. It advised 
the more general employment of older men for many 
kinds of work rather than that of women or boys, 
and largely because of its support of this policy the 
age of engaging men advanced during the war by 
ten years, until men of fifty were able to find em- 
ployment. 

The first task which the War Labor Policies Board 
undertook was that of bringing order out of the 
chaotic condition which had quickly developed 
through the bidding for labor against one another of 
all employers, both public and private, and the work- 
ing out of a national policy for the distribution of 
labor. The existing machinery of the United States 



276 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

Employment Service, very greatly enlarged and 
strengthened as soon as funds for that purpose were 
available, was used in the execution of this policy. 
Offices were established in the several states, their 
number soon totaling 400, and a decentralized system 
was worked out consisting of state and community 
labor boards, upon all of which there was joint rep- 
resentation of employers, employees and the United 
States Employment Service. These made it possi- 
ble to list and keep constant check upon the supply 
of labor and the demand for it in every part of the 
country and within a very short time to move an ex- 
cess of the supply in one place to another in which 
there was need. These community labor boards were 
organized in every state of the Union and by the 
first of September, 1918, were at work in 1000 indus- 
trial centers. In every application for work the 
schooling and the occupational experience and train- 
ing of the applicant were stated, thus making it easy 
to match the job with the man. By the end of the 
summer the U. S. Employment Service had made 
placements of almost 2,000,000 wage earners. 

The production departments of the Government 
agreed to employ unskilled labor only through the 
U. S. Employment Service and private employers, 
with very rare exceptions, were quickly brought to 
see the necessity of cooperation and readily responded 
to the plea that was made to their patriotism and 
their intelligence. The Employment Service aided 
in the weeding out of men from non-essential indus- 
tries and helped to transfer them to those upon which 
the nation's life depended. It gave efficient assist- 
ance also in the important work of preventing the 
drafting into the army of skilled workers whose labor 



LABOB AND THE WAB 277 

was needed in war industries. Through its 15,000 
enrollment agents it reached out into towns and vil- 
lages, tapped every potential supply of wage earn- 
ers, and registered in advance men for specified 
trades for which one or another war emergency would 
soon make demand. Its division for farm service 
made it possible to harvest the 1918 crop with far 
less than the usual loss due to lack of harvest hands, 
notwithstanding the fact that there was little unem- 
ployment in any part of the country. For the guid- 
ance of boys in their latter teens the section of the 
U. S. Boys' Working Eeserve directed the work in 
1918 of 250,000 boys of high school age who wished 
to devote the summer vacation to productive civilian 
work that would aid the prosecution of the war, ex- 
ercisin'g upon this great body of future citizens 
through various agencies and by varied methods a 
notable influence for manly spirit, patriotism and 
citizenship ideals. 

A section of the War Labor Administration that 
had under its charge the informing of the public 
as to its activities and the education of those engaged 
in war emergency production was a part of the demo- 
cratic methods of the whole national war program 
and did much to stimulate patriotic effort and bring 
divergent interests into harmony. Through thou- 
sands of magazines, newspapers and periodicals of 
every sort it brought the efforts being made by the 
War Labor Administration to general knowledge and 
aroused interest in industrial problems. It sent out 
hundreds of speakers who talked upon subjects deal- 
ing with labor and the war before chambers of com- 
merce, clubs, trade unions and other organizations, 
and meetings of employees in plants devoted to war 



278 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

industries. It distributed 1,000,000 posters a month, 
which, changed every two or three weeks, were dis-. 
played in workshops, factories, stores and railway 
stations, and it supplemented these and the spoken 
word with a campaign of motion picture service. It 
formed committees among the employees of over 12,- 
000 plants to establish personal contact between those 
employed in war industry, their employers and the 
representatives of the Labor Department, promote 
better understanding between them and so increase 
production. 

A serious problem grew early in the war out of 
the immense expansion in size and man-power of 
plants engaged in war industry and the creation 
of many others — the problem of the housing or trans- 
portation of their employees. Almost overnight the 
population of the vicinity of an industrial plant 
would increase so greatly that transportation facili- 
ties would be swamped and housing accommodations 
become utterly inadequate. Appropriations amount- 
ing to $100,000,000 were provided for the solving 
of this problem, half of which was to be devoted to 
industrial housing. At the end of September, 1918, 
houses, apartment houses and flats capable of ac- 
commodating 9,000 families had been built or were 
under construction and financial allotments had been 
made for as many more projects which were under 
consideration and about to be developed. To relieve 
situations where it was possible for the incoming 
workers to be absorbed by surrounding or nearby 
communities there had been built up in more than 
fifty cities organizations in which councils of de- 
fense, chambers of commerce, housing associations, 
Y. W. C. A. and other local bodies cooperated with 



LABOR AND THE WAR 279 

this division of the War Lahor Administration. Such 
an organization would investigate living conditions 
and list vacant houses, flats and rooms, frequently 
showing the existence of sufficient housing facilities 
to make construction unnecessary. 

Among the most important of the agencies de- 
veloped by the War Labor Administration was that 
of the National War Labor Board, created for the 
purpose of adjusting difficulties between wage work- 
ers and employers in industries directly or indi- 
rectly concerned with production for the war. It 
was appointed by the Secretary of Labor at the 
end of our first year of participation in the war 
and consisted of five representatives each of em- 
ployers and wage-earners and two joint chairmen 
acceptable to both sides. It served as a sort of court 
of appeal, only such cases of disagreement being con- 
sidered by it as the Conciliation Service of the Labor 
D^epartment failed to adjust. 

In form and purpose the War Labor Board was 
a new departure for even a democratic nation to take. 
It had no precedents behind it and no body of law 
with which to enforce its decisions. To make its 
work effective it depended upon the general sense of 
justice and fair play, the confidence of workers and 
employers in the justice of the policies by which it 
was guided and the loyalty and patriotism of both the 
opposing sides of industrial controversies. Its pur- 
pose was to secure maximum production of all war 
necessities by preventing strikes and lockouts, and 
also proper conditions of labor and of living that 
would aid in making possible that maximum produc- 
tion. With regard to labor unions the Board based 
all its procedure upon the right of labor to organize 



280 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

and to bargain collectively with employers, but for- 
bade any coercion by labor unions or their members 
of either employers or employees. Employers were 
not allowed to discharge workers or to penalize them, 
directly or indirectly, for attempting to organize, 
although shops were to be continued as closed or 
open, on their existing status, for the period of the 
war. In open shops the union standard of wages 
and conditions was to be maintained. The Board 
would not use its power to compel open shops to be- 
come union shops, but employers agreed to recognize 
the right of the employees of a shop to form a full 
organization of their own members if they chose. 
The Board recognized the basic eight-hour day as 
applying in all cases where required by the existing 
law and in other cases it pledged itself to settle the 
question with due regard to the welfare of the work- 
ers and to governmental necessities. In the case of 
women workers it insisted upon equal pay for equal 
work and said that their tasks must be proportioned 
to their strength. 

The National War Labor Board called to its aid a 
large number of men and women trained in the in- 
vestigation of labor problems and when its services 
were necessary the case was studied by several of 
these agents, the sides respectively of labor and of 
management being investigated each by those sym- 
pathetic with its point of view. They studied each 
case on its own merits, listed the grievances, collect- 
ed evidence and selected witnesses to appear before 
the Board. In some cases, in order to expedite the 
work, trained examiners conducted hearings at which 
both sides were represented and then reported to 
the Board with an analysis and summary of the case. 



LABOR AND THE WAR 281 

At the date of October first, 1918, the offices of 
the National War Labor Board had been invoked in 
531 controversies involving the employment of more 
than 2,000,000 workers, of which 266 were still pend- 
ing. Awards had been made directly in forty-four 
cases, others had been referred to other governmental 
agencies or settled in other ways, and others had been 
withdrawn or dropped. In only four cases had the 
members of the Board failed to come to unanimous 
decision concerning the award and in only three in- 
stances had there been refusal to accept its conclu- 
sions. In two of these cases the result was the taking 
over by the Government, in one, of telegraph and 
telephone lines, and in the other of a munitions plant, 
while in the third, also a munitions plant, the strik- 
ing workers decided, upon appeal to their patriotism, 
to accept the award and to resume work. 

The work and the decisions of the National War 
Labor Board had a profoundly beneficent influence 
upon the war production of the country, reducing to 
a minimum the deterrent effects of labor troubles. 
The policies to which it pledged itself and the gen- 
eral confidence in its purpose to deal fairly with 
both sides greatly decreased the probable number of 
cases of serious trouble, as in many which other- 
wise would have grown into strikes or lockouts the 
opposing parties found they were able to settle their 
differences between themselves. The work of the 
Board raised the wages directly of approximately a 
million workers and of perhaps twice that number 
indirectly and it strongly influenced for the better 
the relations between wage earners and employers. 

The just and scientiflc management of labor prob- 
lems in connection with the war resulted in a mini- 



282 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

mtun of labor trouble, an enthusiastic and patriotic 
response of labor to the needs of the nation and an 
enormous and very slightly interrupted production of 
all goods needed for war purposes. 



CHAPTER XXXI 

BIG-BROTHERING THE FIGHTING FORCES 

NEVER in all the history of wars was an army 
so big-brothered, its welfare so lovingly and ef- 
ficiently eared for, as were the fighting forces of the 
United States in the world war. To the whole na- 
tion, from President down to street gamin, they were 
**our boys," seldom spoken of by any other term, 
and whatever the nation thought they wanted and 
could have it gave with full heart and overflowing 
hands. At the very beginning of our war effort, the 
desire of the War Department that the men should 
be so environed and trained on this side the ocean 
and so cared for on the other that they should be 
not only better soldiers but also should return to 
their homes better men than when they left, with no 
scars other than the honored ones gained in battle, 
and its initial undertakings toward that aim won 
instant and whole-hearted response from end to end 
of the country. 

Various organizations, to the number of a dozen 
or more, some of them newly created and others of 
long life and experience, were soon working, with 
their hundreds of thousands of members, for the 
health, the comfort, the welfare, the happiness of 
the men of the fighting forces. The twin Commis- 
sions on Training Camp Activities for the Army and 

283 



284 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTEBS 

the Navy entered at once upon their program of ac- 
tivities in all the cantonments and camps for the 
training of soldiers and sailors. Their athletic di- 
rectors, boxing instructors, song leaders, theater 
managers, dramatic entertainment coaches were all 
experts in their several lines and took up with enthu- 
siasm the work of furnishing entertainment and rec- 
reation and of training the men to provide enter- 
tainment for themselves. These two commissions 
were appointed by the War and Navy Departments 
and were a part of the system of training for war. 
They have been described in the sections dealing with 
the Army and the Navy and, except for the approval 
and support given to them by the whole people and 
the cooperation with them of civilian agencies, do not 
rightfully belong in an account of how practically 
all the nation stood on its tiptoes behind the fight- 
ers in its zeal to serve them and care for them. These 
two commissions, while they were similar to the other 
agencies in methods and spirit, were of governmental 
origin, support and direction, while the others were 
civilian. 

The activities of the civilian societies gave expres- 
sion to the heart of the whole people. At first they 
worked separately, each supported by its own mem- 
bers and followers, but after a time smaller societies 
merged themselves in or cooperated with larger ones 
and the seven chief organizations which finally com- 
prised the bulk of the effort so arranged their work 
as to avoid duplication and overlapping and so elimi- 
nate waste. These seven were the War Camp Com- 
munity Service, the Young Women's Christian Asso- 
ciation, the Salvation Army, the Jewish Welfare 
Board, the Knights of Columbus, the Young Men's 



BIG-BROTHERING FIGHTING FORCES 285 

Christian Association and the American Library As- 
sociation. 

Supplementing the work of the Commissions on 
Training Camp Activities for the Army and Navy, 
the War Camp Community Service operated in the 
regions immediately surrounding or near the train- 
ing camps. It bettered moral conditions in camp 
environments, provided sleeping quarters, baths, can- 
teens, information booths, clubs, reading rooms, ar- 
ranged dances and theatrical entertainments, served 
as a medium through which the hospitable desires of 
the community might reach the men, thus making 
possible their entertainment in hundreds of thou- 
sands of homes. Its work was established in one 
hundred and twenty-eight cities, in every state in 
the Union, and two million men registered at its 
clubs. In the work of the Service in New York City 
alone one million men in uniform were provided 
with beds and baths, it had 9,000 beds available every 
night, it served meals to more than 50,000 men, 75,- 
000 soldiers and sailors attended its dances and al- 
most as many were taken on Sunday sight-seeing 
trips through the city, while hundreds of thousands 
enjoyed the theatrical entertainments it furnished. 

Cooperating with the War Camp Community Serv- 
ice, the National League for Women's Service with 
its 300,000 members ran its own clubs and canteens, 
furnished workers for those of other organizations 
and for information booths, recruited a Woman's 
Motor Corps whose members were ready for work 
as motor drivers for any war service oganization, 
served as the distributing agency for florists all over 
the country who contributed flowers for the wounded 
in hospitals, and collected and sent books, magazines, 



286 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

games, phonographs and records to army and navy 
camps at home and overseas. 

The Over-There Theater League, under the leader- 
ship of men prominent in the theatrical world, se- 
cured actors and actresses, arranged theatrical tours, 
staged entertainments and, under the auspices of the 
Y. M. C. A., carried their performances from camp 
to camp. During the ''Slacker Record Week" 15,000 
men and women engaged in the campaign to secure 
phonographs and records to be sent overseas for the 
pleasure of the soldiers. To provide moving pic- 
tures for the camps at home and on the other side 
a great number of writers, actors and producers 
worked with zeal, and the Community Motion Picture 
Bureau, in charge of the service under the Y. M. C. 
A., made careful investigation to find out what kind 
of pictures were best liked in the different places. 
In the camps and cantonments at home it showed 
8,000,000 feet of films per week. It had 2,000,000 
feet of films in service on the transports that carried 
the troops to France. Its films were sent out to the 
ships of the Atlantic fleet and circulated from one 
cruiser to another. In France, and wherever there 
were American troops, the movie was ready for their 
entertainment in camps and hospitals from the port 
of debarkation to the rear of the firing line. 

The contribution of the Y. W. C. A. to the work 
of big-brothering the army gave a peculiar touch 
which, unprecedented in war as the whole movement 
was, carried in a still more unusual and original way 
the atmosphere of the home and the influence of the 
social fabric through the training camps and across 
the ocean. In more than a hundred camps and can- 
tonments its Hostess Houses, acconunodating from 



BIG-BROTHERING FIGHTING FORCES 287 

500 to 5,000, offered welcome to women friends and 
relatives visiting soldiers and sailors. The Hostess 
House, with its flowers and rugs and easy chairs, its 
desks for writing and tables offering books and maga- 
zines, its cheerful, blazing fireplace in winter and its 
verandas in summer, its pleasant and well conducted 
cafeteria and its general homelike air, was a charm- 
ing bit of the outside world set down in the midst 
of military activities. There mother, wife, sister, 
sweetheart, friend could meet her soldier or sailor 
lad, could spend the night if necessary and have 
good, inexpensive meals. It was the scene of many 
impromptu weddings, the hostess of the house and 
her assistants taking charge of the arrangements, 
when lovers decided suddenly to be married before 
the ocean and the chances of battle should separate 
them. The Y. W. C. A. carried its work to France, 
and in its Hostess Houses there looked after the wel- 
fare of the women workers for the American Expe- 
ditionary Force and its canteens followed the Ameri- 
can troops even to north Russia, where they were 
established in Murmansk and Archangel. 

All of the great religious bodies of the country 
joined at once in the effort to lessen for the army 
and navy men the hardships of war, to surround 
them with as many as possible of the comforts of 
civilized life and to uphold them physically, men- 
tally and morally. People of Protestant faith gave 
their support mainly to the long established and 
widely reaching organization of the Y. M. C. A., 
members of the Catholic Church, working through 
the National Catholic War Council, supported the 
endeavors of the Knights of Columbus, and the Jew- 
ish Welfare Board, with American Jewry behind it, 



288 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

turned its attention especially to soldiers of that 
faith. And the Salvation Army, with its years of 
experience in caring for the needs of humanity and 
upholding morale, was early in the field. All these 
organizations cooperated in the most cordial way, 
supplementing one another's effort and joining their 
endeavors whenever the best results could be gained 
in that way, two or more of them sometimes using 
the same building. The friendly hand, the good 
cheer, the comforts each had to offer were ready for 
any man in uniform without a thought as to his re- 
ligious affiliations. Each held its religious ministra- 
tions in reserve for those who asked for them and, 
for the rest, based its abundant and many-sided serv- 
ice solely on the desire to help the American Army 
fight the battle of justice and liberty. Their one 
purpose was to big-brother the fighting forces of 
the nation and, whether in training camp or de- 
barkation port, on transport or battleship, behind 
the lines in France or at the very front, to be ready 
with whatever help and cheer and comfort it was in 
their power to give when it was wanted. 

The Jewish Welfare Board was the youngest of 
all these organizations, having been formed after 
our entrance into the conflict for the purpose of 
helping to win the war by carrying out the policies 
of the War Department with regard to the welfare 
and the morale of the soldiers. Behind it were three 
and a half million citizens of the Jewish faith and, 
while it functioned on its religious side for the benefit 
of the 175,000 men of the Jewish religion in the 
Army and Navy, in all its other activities it was non- 
sectarian and worked as generously and cordially 
for one as for another. In the training camps of the 



BIG-BROTHERING FIGHTING FORCES 289 

Army and the Navy in the United States it had many 
huts and nearly three hundred field workers who 
arranged entertainments, classes and study groups, 
provided religious services, and taught the English 
language and the principles of American citizenship 
to men new to America. In two hundred communi- 
ties near training stations the representatives of the 
Welfare Board cooperated with the War Camp Com- 
munity Service in all the phases of its activities. 
Overseas it had headquarters in Paris and at the 
end of hostilities it was preparing to establish others 
at debarkation ports and in cities near the large 
camps of the A. E. F. and was ready to send a hun- 
dred men and women workers to take charge of 
them. Its club rooms in Paris were equipped with 
books, music, games and other means of social en- 
joyment and the organization, by cooperation with 
a French society, arranged to have Jewish soldiers 
entertained in French homes of their own faith. 
Through the suggestion of the Welfare Board a num- 
ber of rabbis were commissioned as chaplains with 
the fighting forces, each of them being provided with 
a monthly allowance to expend upon small comforts 
for his boys. They held Jewish holyday services 
back of and almost in the front line trenches, in 
cities and villages, once in the ruins of a Roman 
Catholic Cathedral and again in a large Y. M. C. A. 
hut. At one service, at which the rabbi, coming from 
another sector, arrived a little late, he found that 
the local Knights of Columbus Chaplain had kept 
the meeting together for him and opened it with a 
preliminary prayer. 

The National Catholic War Council, organized to 
direct the war-aiding activities of all Catholic forces, 



290 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

operated a million-dollar chain of Visitors' Houses 
at army and navy training camps and of service clubs 
in communities and embarkation ports, where it 
worked in cooperation with the War Camp Com- 
munity Service. Under its supervision was the so- 
ciety of the Knights of Columbus which, at the close 
of hostilities, had in the United States several hun- 
dred buildings and 700 secretaries and overseas more 
than a hundred buildings and huts, with many more 
in preparation, and over 900 workers. It had serv- 
ice clubs in London and Paris which provided read- 
ing, lounging and sleeping rooms, and all such club 
comforts, while its huts behind the lines furnished 
centers of comfort, cheer, entertainment and small 
services of many sorts. It operated a great fleet of 
motor trucks which carried supplies up to the firing 
line and into the front trenches. Nothing was more 
welcome to the battle-weaiy soldiers relieved from 
front line duty than these "K. C." rolling canteens 
with their hot drinks, cigarettes and other comforts. 
The organization shipped to the other side and gave 
to soldiers and sailors many tons of supplies, includ- 
ing cigarettes by the hundreds of millions and huge 
amounts of chewing gum, soap, towels, stationery, 
candy and chocolate. It had more than a hundred 
voluntary chaplains on service with the troops, many 
of whom carried money furnished by the society to 
aid in providing comforts for the welfare of the sol- 
diers. 

The Salvation Army won a peculiar place in the 
hearts of our fighting men by the simple hominess 
and complete self-abnegation of its service. Its huts 
and hostels were in all the important training camps 
at home, while overseas the Salvation Army uniform 



BIG-BROTHERING FIGHTING FORCES 291 

in some kind of a structure or dugout welcomed the 
army lad in the big camp areas, in the supporting 
lines and in the forward troop movements up to the 
rear of the front line forces and trenches. It had 
overseas more than 1200 officers, men and women, 
operating 500 huts of one sort or another, rest rooms 
and hostels. It had forty chaplains serving under 
Government appointment and it supplied nearly 
fifty ambulances. Its method was to put a husband 
and wife in charge of a canteen or hut, the man 
making himself useful in any way that offered, the 
woman making doughnuts and pies, chocolate and 
coffee for the ever hungry doughboys, and doing for 
them whatever small motherly ser^dce was possible. 
In their huts the men could alwaj^s find warmth and 
light and good cheer, music and games and good 
things to eat that were touchingly reminiscent of 
boyhood and home. Shells screamed overhead, gas 
floated back from the front and the earth shook with 
the roar of battle, but the Salvation Army workers 
stood to their self-imposed duties regardless of their 
own comfort or danger and had ready for the long 
lines of soldiers coming and going a smiling, heart- 
felt welcome and huge quantities of pies and dough- 
nuts and hot drinks. Its canteens were always open, 
day and night, and none of its workers was sent over- 
seas without special training. 

By far the largest, oldest and most important of 
these welfare organizations was the Young Men's 
Christian Association, which expanded a total of 
nearly $80,000,000 on a system of war service so vast 
that the sun was rising upon it through every hour 
of the day. Within a few hours after the United 
States entered the war the Y. M. C. A. offered its 



292 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

entire resources to the Government. At the end of 
hostilities it had overseas over 7,000 workers, of 
whom 1,600 were women; in the American Expedi- 
tionary Forces it had 1,900 war service centers, near- 
ly 1,500 in the French armies, several hundred in 
Italy, with more in Russia and Siberia ; in the United 
States it had 950 of these centers and 6,000 workers 
and it was represented in every cantonment and 
training camp for Army or Navy from end to end 
of the country. On this side, it paid for its huts 
and their equipment a total of more than $6,000,000, 
while overseas the similar expenditure went beyond 
$5,000,000, making a total of well over $11,000,000 
invested in the equipment with which to give our 
soldiers and sailors rest and cheer, entertainment and 
comfort. The cost of the operation of these centers 
amounted, for the duration of the war, to over 
$6,550,000. 

In the home camps and cantonments the **Y" cen- 
ters had an average of nearly 20,000,000 visits from 
soldiers and sailors per month, while in them at the 
same time were written letters on free Red Triangle 
stationery numbering more than 14,000,000 and its 
entertainments, lectures and motion picture shows 
were attended by 5,000,000 men. It established and 
carried on thousands of educational classes, French 
being the most popular study. Its work was espe- 
cially valuable in the education of illiterates and of 
foreigners who did not understand English. Some 
50,000 who could not read or write when they entered 
the training camps received in this way the rudi- 
ments of a common school education. On troop trains 
and transports the ''Y" workers were present, giving 
whatever service the conditions made possible. 



BIG-BROTHERING FIGHTING FORCES 293 

Overseas tlie hut of the Red Triangle was to be 
found wherever there were American fighting men — 
in England, Ireland, Scotland, in France and Italy, 
Russia and Siberia, from Gibraltar to Vladivostok, 
from the Caucasus to the Murman coast. Sometimes 
the *'hut" was a dugout, sometimes a ruined chateau, 
again it was a freight car on a siding, or a tempo- 
rary shack, or a substantial building. But, what- 
ever its form and appearance, it stood for home, for 
the democratic social fabric for which the men were 
fighting, and within it they could always find light 
and warmth, cheer and good fellowship, books, games, 
music, entertainment, smokes and toothsome dainties. 

Motion picture films for the Y. M. C. A. to the 
average length of fifteen miles were shipped every 
week, and at its moving picture shows there was an 
average weekly attendance of 2,500,500. Scores of 
actors and actresses canceled their engagements and 
went overseas to interest and amuse the soldiers and 
sailors with performances of all kinds on the hut cir- 
cuit, organized and directed by the Over-There The- 
ater League, under the Y. M. C. A. During the lat- 
ter months a hundred performances daily, on the 
average, were put on in the various camps. None of 
the players received a salary and shows of all kinds 
were free. There were concerts, lectures, readings, as 
well as movies and every kind of theatrical perform- 
ance. A department of plays and costumes main- 
tained in Paris sent out to the camps facilities for 
amateur performances and fifty professional coaches 
went from the United States to encourage and train 
the soldiers to produce entertainments of their own. 
Violins, banjos, mandolins, ukeleles and cornets were 



294 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

sent over by the thousands, to say nothing of smaller 
instruments and sheets of music. 

To provide for athletics and physical recreation 
for the soldiers and sailors overseas the Y. M. C. A. 
expended more than a million and a half dollars. It 
sent over 1,200 sports leaders and its shipments in- 
cluded huge quantities of baseballs and bats, boxing 
gloves, footballs, ping-pong balls, racquets, nets, ten- 
nis balls, running shoes, and all the paraphernalia of 
indoor and outdoor sports, to the value of $2,000,000, 
which were free for the asking. 

The post canteens of the army were taken over 
by the Y. M. C. A., at the urgent request of the 
commander of the American forces and against its 
own desire, and operated throughout the war. This 
entailed the running of a huge merchandising propo- 
sition foreign to its customary activities and the 
work was assumed in addition to its chosen program 
of fostering the morale and cherishing the welfare 
of the fighting forces. For this post exchange serv- 
ice it furnished buildings and service without charge 
and sold to the soldiers at cost goods to the value of 
$3,000,000 per month. Its workers often carried 
packs of goods into the trenches and distributed them 
freely. Because it was all a question of service the 
organization itself bore the very considerable loss at 
which it operated the canteens. 

A system of '* leave-areas " conducted by the Y. 
M. C. A. provided recreation for the men on the 
seven days' furlough given to each one after four 
months of service. It was not thought desirable by 
the military authorities to turn the men loose for 
their holiday and therefore several resorts were 
taken over to furnish interesting places for them to 



BIG-BROTHERING FIGHTING FORCES 295 

visit and were put into the hands of the Y. M. C. A. 
as hosts and entertainers. Aix-les-Bains was the first 
and twenty-five others were added until the men had 
a wide range of selection ranging from famed resorts 
in the Alps to others on the shores of the Mediter- 
ranean. It was a kind of entertainment that had to 
be created, for it was entirely without precedent. 
Largely in the hands of women workers in the Y. 
M. C. A., they and their men helpers and advisers 
bent their utmost endeavor, resourcefulness and lov- 
ing care to the work of giving the men a good time 
and sending them back to their duties at the end 
of their leaves physically and mentally refreshed. 
Each area had its athletic field in which every day 
there were sports going on and there were mountain 
climbs, picnics, bicycle rides, and, in the evening, 
movies, theatrical entertainments, concerts, music and 
dancing. 

The women's contingent of the Y. M. C. A. did 
effective work both in these leave areas and in the 
canteens. Their service was not enlisted until a 
year after our entrance into the conflict, but at the 
end of hostilities a thousand women were engaged in 
it, and so insistent was the call for them that they 
were recruited as rapidly as possible, a thousand 
more being sent over during the next three months. 
They were given a week or more of intensive training 
before sailing to fit them for the duties they would 
have to undertake. 

Unique in all army as well as in all educational 
history was the great educational system which the 
Y. M. C. A. undertook to establish, under the au- 
thority and with the cooperation of the War Depart- 
ment. Beginning in the home camps, it was carried 



296 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

across the sea, developed more and more as time went 
on, and found its climax in the ''Khaki University.*' 
The final and complete plans were ready only in time 
for use with the Army of Occupation in Germany 
and in the camps abroad and at home in which the 
men waited for demobilization, when $2,000,000 
worth of text-books had been ordered for the work. 
Some of the foremost educational experts of the 
United States, numbering several hundred, were 
engaged in the organizing and supervision of the sys- 
tem and many hundreds of others, members of the 
alumni and faculties of American educational institu- 
tions who were enrolled among the fighting forces, 
undertook the work of instruction. The scheme en- 
abled soldiers and sailors to continue their studies 
without expense, whether they desired elementary, 
collegiate or professional instruction or agricultural, 
technical or commercial training. The scheme, which 
was finally taken over by the Army, is described at 
more length in the chapter on ''The "Welfare of the 
Soldiers." 

So successful and important was the work of the 
Y. M. C. A. with the American forces that both the 
French and the Italian Governments requested it to 
establish service centers with their respective armies. 
This it did, the American workers who initiated and 
supervised the program of recreation and fostering 
of morale being assisted, in the respective armies, by 
French and Italians. 

The prodigious program of the Y. M. C. A. with 
the American forces, which it has not been possible 
to more than outline, was carried through largely by 
volunteer workers who wished to undertake it as the 
best way in which they could help to win the war. 




A Pleasant Evening in a Hostess House 




Salvation Army Lassies at the Front 



BIG-BROTHERINa FIGHTING FORCES 297 

Men wlio were too old to fight or were physically 
unfit for military service joyfully welcomed the op- 
portunity to do something that would aid the fighting 
men. Many gave up large salaries and left their 
situations for the sake of this important service. 
Others who were financially unable to leave depend- 
ents accepted for them an allowance much smaller 
than they could have earned themselves and gladly 
took up the work upon the mere payment of their 
expenses. 

The "Y" workers were on the troop trains that 
carried the men from their homes to the training 
camps and the Red Triangle was at the fighting 
man's side from that moment until he was ready to 
go over the top. And sometimes the "Y" worker 
even went forward in the charge with the men for 
whose welfare he was giving his service. Shell fire not 
infrequently destroyed the trucks upon which the 
goods of the Y. M. C. A. were being carried to the 
front, its huts were sometimes shattered in the same 
way and nine of its workers, two of them women, 
were killed by bursting shells. Fifty-seven died in 
the service, most of them from wounds, over-work 
and exposure. Twenty-three were seriously injured 
or gassed. Of its workers 152 received official recog- 
nition for distinguished services, to thirteen of whom 
was awarded the Croix de Guerre and to fifty more 
other famous decorations. 

The American Army was a reading and thinking 
army and that one of the seven great big-brothering 
orgteinizations which undertook to supply it with 
reading matter, the American Library Association, 
was kept busy. The Library War Service of the 
Association had in each of forty-eight large army and 



298 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

navy training camps and in seventy hospitals in the 
United States a central library building, or library 
quarters, with branches and stations radiating all 
over the camp or hospital area to render its volumes 
easy of access. It had collections of books in nearly 
two hundred hospitals and Red Cross Houses. It 
equipped with these collections over five hundred 
military camps and posts and aviation fields, schools 
and repair depots. It supplied with libraries 260 
naval and marine stations and 750 vessels. It had 
nearly 2,000 branches and stations placed in Y. M. C. 
A. and K of C. huts, barracks and mess halls. It 
shipped overseas 2,000,000 books and 64,000 maga- 
zines and distributed 5,000,000 magazines donated by 
the public through the mails. In its war service li- 
braries there were over 5,000,000 volumes. Three 
hundred and forty trained librarians supervised its 
service. Accepted books to the number of 4,000,000 
were given by the American people, who provided 
also the money with which were bought 1,300,000 
more. Book donations were well sifted before the 
books were accepted for war service and the authori- 
ties of the association estimated that probably twice 
as many were given as were finally used. 

But even these enormous quantities of books and 
magazines were no more than sufficient to meet the 
desire for reading shown throughout the Army and 
the Navy. The Library War Service of the Asso- 
ciation did its best to supply to every fighting man 
in the training camps at home, on the transports, 
on the cruisers and battleships, in the stations over- 
seas, in the camps and rest billets, the book he needed 
when he wanted it, whether it was light fiction, or 
a technical treatise, or a work of history, economics, 



BIG-BB0THERIN(} FIGHTING FOECES 299 

philosophy or travel. It supplied books in practical- 
ly all the modern languages — about forty were repre- 
sented in each of the large camps — for both study 
and reading and its lists were filled with titles of 
scientific, technical and other works that covered 
the whole range of modern knowledge and activity, 
philosophy, literature, history, biography, poetry, 
art, music, fiction, drama, economics, sociology, busi- 
ness, travel. There was demand for them all. To- 
ward the end of the war and after the armistice the 
Library War Service bent its energies to meeting 
the greatly increased call for vocational books that 
would enable the fighting man to become more effi- 
cient in his special job or to get a better one when 
he should presently be returned to civil life. 

To support this vast enterprise of big-brothering 
the Army the American people gave without stint 
to the organizations by which the work was system- 
atized and carried through. They gave money and 
effort and thought and love, because it was for "our 
boys." They responded with more than was asked 
by each organization in its separate appeals made 
during the first year and a half of our war effort. 
Then, in order that the appeal for funds might be 
made more efficiently and economically, the seven 
chief organizations united in a great, nation-wide 
drive, the money that was subscribed to be divided 
proportionately among them. They asked for $170,- 
000,000. All the preparations had been made for it 
before the armistice was signed and it began on that 
day. Every one believed that the war was over, but 
because ''our boys" were still overseas and for many 
weeks to come would need care, recreation, comforts 



300 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

and entertainment, no hand withheld its gift. When 
the week's drive was over it was found that $203,179,- 
000 had been subscribed to continue the work of big- 
brothering th.e fighting forces. 



CHAPTER XXXII 

RUNNING THE RAILROADS 

DURING the first nine months of our participa- 
tion in the war the railroads did their best to 
meet the unusual and mounting demands upon their 
facilities and methods. But the entire railroad sys- 
tem had developed under the principle of competi- 
tion and, composed as it was of so many diverse parts 
and divergent interests, all accustomed by theory, 
tradition and practice to competitive methods, it 
presently became evident that the coordinated man- 
agement and cooperative effort demanded by the 
emergency would be impossible under continued pri- 
vate control. The immense increase in traffic caused 
by war conditions had strained the existing system 
to its utmost effort, and had resulted by the autumn 
of 1917 in hopeless congestion of freight at eastern 
terminals and along the railway lines far inland. 
There had been such rapid increase in operating ex- 
penses that the financial situation of the railroads 
was very bad, and, under the general financial condi- 
tions of the time, had become a serious menace. The 
country was at war and its first and most pressing 
duty was to prosecute that war to early and complete 
victory, which it could not do under the paralysis 
that was threatening the transportation system. 
For the Government to take control of the rail- 

301 



302 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

roads was an almost revolutionary procedure, so op- 
posed was it to American economic theory, convic- 
tion and practice. But the problem was rapidly 
being reduced to the bare alternatives of govern- 
mental railroad control or the losing of the war, or, 
at least, its long-drawn out continuance. But one 
solution was possible, and, disregarding all theory 
and all deeply rooted custom, the President, in ac- 
cordance with powers already conferred upon him by 
Congress, took possession and assumed control of the 
entire railroad system of the United States at the 
end of December, 1917. 

Management of transportation by rail and water 
was thereupon put into the hands of a Director 
General of Railroads, who thus found himself at the 
head of more than 265,000 miles of railway, many 
times the mileage of any other nation, and of 2,300,- 
000 employees. There were about 180 separate oper- 
ating companies having operating revenues of 
$1,000,000 or more per year each and several hun- 
dred more with less than that yearly revenue. The 
Railroad Administration, which decentralized its 
work by dividing the country into districts, each 
under a regional director, began its task in the face 
of weather conditions without parallel in the history 
of the country, which had already almost paralyzed 
transportation and were to continue for ten weeks 
longer. 

There was a shortage of freight cars and of loco- 
motives and the railroads, in common with all the 
country, were menaced with a shortage of coal, due 
mainly to the immensely increased demand and the 
breakdown of transportation. So great was the con- 
gestion of freight that in the area north of the Po- 



RUNNING THE RAILROADS 303 

tomac and Ohio Rivers and east of Chicago and the 
Mississippi there were 62,000 carloads waiting to be 
sent to their destination, while along the lines west 
and south of that area there were over 85,000 more 
carloads held back by this congestion. Nearly all of 
it was destined for the eastern seaboard north of 
Baltimore. 

In addition to the usual transportation business of 
the country, hundreds of thousands, mounting into 
the millions, of soldiers had to be carried from their 
homes to cantonments and from cantonments to ports 
of debarkation and billions of tons of munitions, 
food, supplies and materials of many kinds had to be 
carried from all parts of the country upon lines 
that converged toward eastern ports, while the im- 
mense war building program of the nation — canton- 
ments, camps, munition plants, shipyards and ships, 
warehouses, structures of many sorts — called for the 
transportation of vast quantities of material. 

By the first of the following May practically all 
of this congestion had been cleared up and through 
the rest of the year there was no more transportation 
stringency, although traffic grew constantly heavier 
until the end of hostilities. It will illumine the 
conditions under which the Railroad Administration 
achieved its results to mention a few of its items of 
transportation. During the ten months ending with 
October it handled 740,000 more cars of bituminous 
coal than had been loaded during the same period of 
the previous year. From the Pacific Northwest there 
were brought, from April to November, for the build- 
ing of airplanes, ships and other governmental activi- 
ties and for shipment overseas, 150,000 cars of lum- 
ber. During the year 630,000 cars of grain were car- 



304 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

ried to their destination, the increase from July to 
November over the previous year being 135,000 cars. 
Livestock movement was especially heavy, showing 
in all kinds a large increase. Five hundred and sixty 
thousand carloads of material were moved to en- 
campments, shipyards and other Government pro- 
jects. From the middle of May to the end of the 
year the car-record office showed a total movement 
of 1,026,000 cars, an average of 5,700 daily. 

Comparison of the physical performance of the 
roads during the first ten months of 1918 with that 
of the similar period in 1917, reduced to fundamen- 
tals, showed an increase in the number of ton-miles 
per mile of road per day, in number of tons per load- 
ed car, in number of tons per freight train mile, in 
total ton-miles per freight locomotive per day. The 
constant purpose was to keep each locomotive and 
car employed to its capacity and to make each pro- 
duce the maximum of ton-miles with the minimum of 
train, locomotive and car miles. 

Highty important among the achievements of the 
Railroad Administration was the movement of 
troops. From the first of the year until November 
10th there were transported over the roads 6,496,000 
troops, an average of 625,000 per month, the troop 
movements requiring 193,000 cars of all types, with 
an average of twelve ears to the train. Outstanding 
features of the troop movement were that 1,785,000 
men were picked up from 4,500 separate points and 
moved on schedule to their training camps, that 
1,900,000 were brought into the crowded port ter- 
minals for embarkation without interference with 
the heavy traffic of other kinds already being handled 
there and in the adjacent territory, that 4,038,000 



RUNNING THE RAILROADS 305 

were carried an average distance of 855 miles, un- 
doubtedly the largest long distance troop movement 
ever made. During one period of thirty days over 
twenty troop trains were brought each day into the 
port of New York. During the entire period from 
January to November including these huge troop 
movements there were but fourteen train accidents 
involving death or injury to the men. 

To all the necessities of the wartime effort of the 
railroads — the enormously increased quantities of 
freight that had to be moved expeditiously and the 
transportation of troops — was added a considerable 
increase in the ordinary passenger traffic. Notwith- 
standing the earnest and repeated requests of the 
Railroad Administration that only necessary jour- 
neys should be taken by civilians, a request that was, 
indeed, very generally heeded, and the increase in 
passenger rates, the passenger traffic all over the 
country was much heavier than in any previous year, 
the increase amounting in the region east of Chicago 
to twenty-five per cent. 

The efficient handling of all this enormous freight 
and passenger traffic was made possible by the poli- 
cies that were adopted. The handling of the whole 
vast network of railroads as one system eliminated 
competition and the wasteful use of time, effort and^ 
equipment. The previous usage of the roads in ac- 
cepting freight at the convenience of the consignor 
without regard to the ability of the consignee to re- 
ceive it had resulted in the appalling congestion of 
terminals and lines in the autumn of 1917. The Rail- 
road Administration based its policy upon the prin- 
ciple that the consignee must be considered first and 
that if he could not receive the freight it was worse 



306 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

tlian useless to fill up switches and yards with loaded 
cars. In order thus to control traffic at its source 
a permit system was adopted which prevented the 
loading of traffic unless there was assurance that it 
could be disposed of at its destination. This policy 
proved to be the chief factor in the ability of the 
transportation system to meet the enormous demands 
upon it. 

Modification of demurrage rules and regulations 
induced more rapid unloading of cars and their 
quicker return to active use. Consolidation of ter- 
minals, both freight and passenger, greatly facili- 
tated the handling of cars. Locomotives that could 
be spared were transferred from all parts of the 
country to the congested eastern region. Coordina- 
tion of shop work increased the amount of repairs 
upon equipment that could be done and kept loco- 
motives and cars in better condition while new ones 
were ordered and work upon them speeded. Rolling 
stock and motive power were economized by doing 
away with circuitous routing of freight and sending 
it instead by routes as short and direct as possible, 
a policy which saved almost 17,000,000 car miles in 
the Eastern and Northeastern Region. 

A plan was devised for making up solid trains of 
live stock and of perishable freight and also consoli- 
dated trains of export freight at Western points and 
forwarding them on certain days of the week directly 
and rapidly to their destinations. Passenger trains 
that had been mainly competitive and such others 
as could be spared were dropped, resulting in the 
elimination during the first seven months of Federal 
control of 47,000,000 passenger train miles^ — an econ- 
omy in motive power and equipment without which 



RUNNING THE RAILROADS 307 

the successful movement of troops would have heen 
impossible. Equipment was standardized, making 
possible its universal use, and freight cars were more 
heavily loaded. In place of the separate ticket of- 
fices made necessary by private and competitive own- 
ership consolidated ticket offices were opened in all 
large cities, 101 of these doing the work of the for- 
mer 564. The result aimed at was both economy 
and a better distribution of the passenger traffic. 

The Railroad Administration saw in the inland 
and coastal waterways and the coastwise shipping 
service an important possible aid in its task of mak- 
ing transportation equal to wartime needs, and so 
mid-Western rivers and Eastern canals were brought 
into cooperation with railway service and several 
coast-wise lines of steamships were made a part of its 
facilities. 

The rental, or return, guaranteed to the railroad 
companies amounted for the year approximately to 
$950,000,000. Upon the advice of a commission ap- 
pointed to investigate the matter of wages and living 
costs among railroad employees, wages were raised 
and threatened labor trouble thereby averted, the 
increase amounting to between $600,000,000 and 
$700,000,000 for the year. In the ten months end- 
ing November 1st the railroad receipts from freight, 
passenger and other sources aggregated over 
$4,000,000,000 and were almost as large as for the 
whole of the previous year. The receipts were greater 
by 20 per cent, but operating expenses also had in- 
creased by more than $1,000,000,000, the year 1918 
breaking all records for both revenues and expenses. 
The increase in wages, in cost of coal, and in all 
maintenance and operating costs was responsible for 



308 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

tlie increase of expenses, which would have been much 
greater but for the economies introduced. Freight 
rates were raised during the year to help meet the 
raise of wages, while a substantial increase in pas- 
senger rates was put in force both to help in that 
result and to discourage unnecessary passenger traf- 
fic during wartime conditions. There was a final 
balance against the Government, as between the net 
income of the roads and the guaranteed return to 
their owners, of between $150,000,000 and $200,000,- 
000. 

The sole purpose of the Government in taking 
over control of the railroads was to achieve a more 
efiicient prosecution of the war by more rapidly for- 
warding our own war effort and by giving more ef- 
fective cooperation to our war associates. Thus, early 
in the winter of 1918 the Western Allies made it 
known to the United States Government that unless 
the food promised by the Food Administration could 
be delivered to them very soon they could not con- 
tinue their war effort. This was immediately after 
the Railroad Administration had taken charge of the 
railroads and was struggling with the freight con- 
gestion extending through the eastern half of the 
country, with coal shortage and blizzard weather 
Every possible facility of the Railroad Administra- 
tion and of the roads it was operating was brought 
to the emergency, and railroad officials and employees 
worked day and night, with the results that by the 
middle of March all the available vessels of the Allies 
had been filled with food and dispatched across the 
Atlantic, while at Eastern seaports were 6,000 more 
carloads ready for later shipment. 

In carrying out this war-furthering purpose the 



RUNNINa THE EAILROADS 309 

Railroad Administration cooperated constantly with 
the other war administrative and war prosecuting 
agencies of the Government, the Food and Fuel Ad- 
ministrations, the War Trade and War Industries 
Boards, the Shipping Board, the Army and Navy 
Departments. Just as food, fuel, trade, industry, 
labor were each and all mobilized for war effort and 
all brought into harmonious and effective teamwork, 
so the transportation agencies were all bent, first of 
all, to the same purpose. Roads, motive power, 
freight and passenger equipment were devoted first 
to the necessities of carrying men from homes to can- 
tonments and camps and thence to ports of embarka- 
tion and of moving food, munitions, supplies and raw 
materials to camps, to shipment points and to places 
of manufacture for war purposes. After these war 
needs were met whatever remained of transportation 
facilities was at the disposal of the ordinary com- 
mercial traffic of the country. 

In order that the public might better understand 
the situation and in order also to better the service 
of the roads there was instituted a Bureau of Com- 
plaints and Suggestions which dealt with all dis- 
satisfactions and considered suggested improvements. 
A very large number of the railroad employees of all 
kinds, efficient through years of service, joined the 
fighting forces of the nation or engaged in work 
more directly concerned with the war and so made 
it necessary to fill their places with untrained help. 
To remedy this condition training schools were es- 
tablished with successful results. 

In the summer of 1918 all express companies were 
combined and placed under the management of the 
Railroad Administration and a little later telegraph 



810 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

and telephone companies, because of their refusal to 
accept an award of the War Labor Board, were uni- 
fied and placed under the control of the Postmaster 
General, as, in the autumn, was done also with the 
cable companies. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

THE WORK OF WOMEN FOR THE WAR 

WHILE the women of the United States did not 
enter war service by means of work in indus- 
tries and auxiliary organizations to the extent of 
their enlistment in England, because the man-power 
problem had not yet, at the end of hostilities, be- 
come serious in this country, the many and varied 
kinds of work for the war in which they did engage 
was of great importance and it had the devoted and 
enthusiastic aid of almost every woman and girl 
throughout the land. From the mother who sent her 
sons across the ocean to the little Girl Scout who ran 
errands for a Red Cross chapter, they were ready for 
any sacrifice it should be necessary for them to make 
and any service they could render. Their spirit was 
as high, their patriotism as ardent and their wish 
to serve as keen as that of their husbands, fathers 
and brothers, and their spirit and their service were 
essential factors in the war achievements of America. 
Their spirit was always the same, but their services 
were of the greatest variety, being, for the greater 
part, such as they could render without leaving their 
homes. Being undertaken in addition to their usual 
duties in the care of homes and families, their war 
labors were less outstanding and much less likely 
to impress the superficial observer than if they had 

311 



312 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

been detached from woman's usual environment. 
But they were none the less essential. 

The shutting down or curtailment of non-essential 
industries and the rapid expansion of those directly 
or indirectly engaged in war production shifted many 
women already possessing some degree of industrial 
training into war work plants of one sort or another, 
while the need for workers and the desire to give 
service of direct consequence led many women to 
enter factories who had not before undertaken in- 
dustrial work. Among the latter class were many 
of collegiate education, or of independent means, or 
engaged in office work who were moved by patriot- 
ism to undertake factory work for the war. The flow 
of women into war industrial work increased stead- 
ily throughout the year and a half of our participa- 
tion and would have been very greatly augmented if 
the war had continued long enough to call the men 
of the second draft from their situations. 

By the end of September, 1918, women were work- 
ing in munition plants of many kinds, making shells, 
grenade belts, fuses, gas masks, metal parts of rifles, 
revolvers and machine guns, and many other sorts 
of the direct supplies of war. Accurate statistics of 
their numbers made in the early summer of 1918 
showed that about 1,500,000 women were engaged 
in the industrial work directly or indirectly connect- 
ed with the Government's war program, while sub- 
sequent estimates added about 500,000 to that num- 
ber to cover those entering such work down to the 
signing of the armistice. 

The former report, covering the conditions at the 
end of our first year of war, showed 100,000 women 
working in private munition plants and Government 




Woman's Land Army Members Sorting and Grading 

Potatoes 




By Permission of Woman's Land Army 

Training Camp of Woman's Land Army 



THE WORK OF WOMEN FOR THE WAR 313 

owned arsenals, another 100,000 in trades necessary 
for the prosecution of the war, such as work in air- 
plane factories, in chemical plants, in those making* 
electrical appliances and in metal trades making 
bolts, screws and other small parts necessary for the 
building of many war essentials. More than 600,000 
women were engaged in the manufacture of things 
necessary for the soldier's equipment and 800,000' 
more in industries necessary to feed and clothe him. 
All these numbers were greatly augmented during 
the seven following months until the close of the 
war. 

Training classes and entering schools were estab- 
lished in scores of plants for the training of un- 
skilled women workers. Practically all the employers 
of women bore testimony to the efficiency with which 
they worked. In order to protect their welfare the 
United States Department of Labor organized a 
Woman in Industry Service which, by means of a 
council of representatives from all the Federal agen- 
cies for the prosecution of the war in which women 
were employed, established standards and policies for 
the controlling of wages and industrial conditions in 
plants employing women. 

More than 100,000 women entered the service of 
the Railroad Administration, where they undertook 
capably many forms of unskilled labor and held many 
varieties of positions requiring knowledge and experi- 
ence, from bookkeeping to office superintendency, 
while many thousands more filled places left vacant 
by men on surface, elevated and subway car lines. 

It is impossible even to estimate the number of 
women who engaged in the production of food for 
the purpose of aiding the war. They cultivated war 



314 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

gardens from end to end of the country ; in the South 
young women of social station, because of the lack 
of the usual labor, helped to gather cotton and other 
crops; in the Northwest women volunteered their 
help in the harvesting season and in some localities 
they formed half or more of the workers who shocked 
the grain in the fields; in other regions they picked 
berries and gathered fruit ; they went from cities 
and towns to country districts to help the farmers' 
wives; they took an active part, individually and 
through clubs, in the increase of poultry, hog and 
dairy production ; in state after state they registered 
for farm work ; and they organized the Woman 's Land 
Army which gave much and efficient aid in many 
parts of the country. 

The Woman's Land Army of America, numbering 
15,000 members, was composed of women who had 
previously done little or no farm work and who en- 
listed in it primarily for the sake of doing something 
of consequence to help win the war. It was organ- 
ized in seventeen states, the state organizations unit- 
ing under the national organization and each one 
forming and training its own farm units. In one 
state. New York, there were forty of these land units, 
each established at a camp under a woman super- 
visor. They lived at the camp, boarding themselves, 
and were carried in their own auto-truck to and fro 
between the camp and the farms where they worked 
by the eight hour day. They were carefully selected 
from volunteers for the work on the basis of physical 
qualification and probable morale and among their 
numbers were represented teachers, college girls, art 
students, telephone operators, stenographers, women 
of leisure. They planted, plowed and hoed, aided in 



THE WORK OF WOMEN FOR THE WAR 315 

the harvesting, drove horses and tractors, gathered 
fruit, did dairy work, cared for poultry and stock 
and proved themselves equal to all the usual work of 
truck, dairy and general farming. There were, alto- 
gether, one hundred and twenty -seven units, ranging 
from twenty to one hundred and fifty members each. 
Farmers who employed them found them capable 
and efficient and their labor proved to be a welcome 
factor in solving the problem of increasing farm pro- 
duction when farm help had been seriously depleted 
by the draft and the munition factories. So success- 
ful was the Woman's Land Army during the first 
year of its existence that in the autumn of 1918 an 
enthusiastic campaign was started for increasing its 
numbers the following year and plans were laid for 
courses of training during the winter. 

In the conservation of food women everywhere co- 
operated with the Government in many ways. They 
enthusiastically supported the requests of the Food 
Administration, their organizations sent out food ex- 
perts, dieticians, conservation instructors through 
country districts, into villages and towns and among 
the women of the poorer quarters in cities to give 
free instruction in the economical but efficient use 
of foods and in the best ways of canning, preserving 
and dehydrating fruits and vegetables. 

In the financing of the war the women of the coun- 
try gave noteworthy help. The National Woman's 
Liberty Loan Committee was organized by the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury in May, 1917, as an inde- 
pendent bureau of the Treasury Department, the 
first and thus far the only executive committee of 
women in the Government of the United States. It 
was created too late to give much assistance in the 



316 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

first Liberty Loan, but it was active in all the suc- 
ceeding ones and was thoroughly organized all over 
the country, for the greater part by states, with 
county organizations under the state or the district. 
It had 3,200 county chairmen and under these, reach- 
ing out into every community, 49,500 associate chair- 
men, while 800,000 women were engaged in its work. 
They organized meetings, engaged speakers and se- 
cured booths and workers for the sale of bonds, but 
the greater part of the work of the organization was 
done by canvassing from house to house. 

This they did in cities, towns, villages, country dis- 
tricts, on foot, on horse-back, by carriage. They did 
not stop for rain, or sun, or wind, for dust, or mud. 
If it was planting time and all the horses of the farm 
were in use, the chairman of a rural committee 
walked miles upon miles to cover her territory. In 
two or three counties of the southern mountain re- 
gion famous for their bloody feuds women rode on 
horseback up and down the mountain sides day after 
day canvassing for the Liberty Loans and carrying 
the counties over the top triumphantly with sub- 
scriptions above their quotas early in the course of 
each campaign. In these counties so many men had 
enlisted in the army before the draft went into effect 
that the burden of taking care of the loans fell to 
women. 

In state after state the Woman's Committee raised 
from one-third to one-half the quotas of the entire 
state and in the three Liberty Loans in which it 
worked it sold $3,500,000,000 worth of bonds. It was 
equally active in the campaigns for the sale of War 
Savings Stamps and its aid proved so important that 



THE WORK OF WOMEN FOR THE WAR 317 

in several of the Federal Reserve Districts it was 
asked to take over the entire work. 

The importance of the aid American women gave 
to the Red Cross was beyond computation and was 
so varied in kind and enormous in quantity that any- 
thing more than the merest outline of it is impossible. 
Volunteer women workers, nearly all of them doing 
the work at odd moments in addition to their home 
or other duties, knitted and sewed so busily that 
they made nearly 300,000,000 articles, valued at $60,- 
000,000, for the Red Cross, to be used in training 
camps, by our fighting forces, in hospitals at home 
and abroad and by the refugees and sufferers in the 
war ridden countries of Europe. 

Many thousands of women worked in canteens, 
poured coffee, tea and chocolate and carried baskets 
of cakes and cigarettes for the refreshment of sol- 
diers as their troop trains stopped at stations on their 
way to and from cantonments or poured into and out 
of ports of embarkation. More than a million and 
a half of the soldiers of America as they boarded 
their transports had their last touch of home at the 
hands of Red Cross women who, no matter what the 
hour of day or night, were ready at the piers with 
buns and cigarettes and cans of steaming hot drinks. 

Many other thousands enlisted for the Red Cross 
Home Defense work and in its offices or as home vis- 
itors gave advice, aid, comfort to the families of sol- 
diers and sailors, helped them to meet their problems, 
material, financial, spiritual, and procured for them, 
when necessary, professional advice and assistance, 
thus aiding morale at the front by upholding that of 
the family at home. Other thousands of women wear- 
ing the Red Cross insignia worked in the hospitals 



318 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

overseas and in convalescent homes on both sides of 
the ocean. No less than 8,000,000 women, and prob- 
ably more, were actively working for the Red Cross 
thronghout the war, organizing, directing and aiding 
the work of its chapters and making hospital band- 
ages, sweaters and other knitted articles, clothing 
for refugees, and repairing soldiers' garments. 

More than 16,000 trained nurses enlisted in war 
service and worked in hospitals at home and overseas 
and 10,000 more had enrolled for service at the end 
of hostilities. The organization of the American 
Women's Hospitals of the Red Cross recruited, or- 
ganized and sent to France several units, each con- 
sisting of ten women physicians and as many aids, 
with the necessary hospital equipment. 

Several hundred women entered the navy as yeo- 
men and gave capable and efficient service. Others 
joined the Signal Corps of the army, 233 of these go- 
ing to France, where their work as telephone and 
telegraph operators received high praise from army 
officers. 

In work for the welfare of the fighting forces the 
women of every part of the country took a very prom- 
inent part. The War Camp Community Service, de- 
scribed in * ' Bdg-Brothering the Fighting Forces," 
was carried on largely by their efforts. Organiza- 
tions of women of many kinds drew together women 
of similar occupations for welfare work or brought 
together those of the greatest variety for the same 
ends. The Stage Women's War Relief, composed 
of actresses, made and sent abroad or to hospitals at 
home great quantities of comfort kits, knitted 
articles, bandages, hospital supplies, dainties to tempt 
the appetite of convalescents, clothing for refugees, 



THE WORK OF WOMEN FOR THE WAR 319 

cigarettes and tobacco. The members of the Young 
Women's Christian Association were to be found in 
active work for the war in nearly all the camps and 
cantonments of the United States, and also in France, 
and even in the frozen north of Russia, where in 
several cities their Hostess Houses and canteens of- 
fered cheer and comfort to soldiers and sailors. 

The Association established a War Work Council 
which devised and carried out methods by which it 
could aid in the prosecution of the war. Its Hostess 
Houses in camps and cantonments were links between 
the men in training and the life they had put behind 
them, where their relatives and friends could meet 
them in pleasant surroundings. The type of the Host- 
ess House was created for the Y. W. C. A. by a 
women architect at the beginning of the war and was 
planned for the special needs which the Association 
foresaw. It combined the features of restaurant, 
reading and lounging rooms, and sleeping rooms for 
relatives who might have to stay overnight in the 
camp, while its semblance was that of a pleasant 
country club. The Hostess Houses were the scenes 
of many war weddings, of occasional christenings, of 
first meetings between returning happy soldier or 
sailor fathers and their children born in their ab- 
sence, and they were sometimes a welcome refuge for 
mother or wife, sister or sweetheart, summoned to the 
camp by the fatal illness of a loved one. 

The Association had a total of almost one hundred 
and fifty Hostess Houses in this country, in the camps 
and cantonments for both white and colored troops, 
in which were over four hundred workers. In France 
it carried on fifteen of these or similar houses for 
American women directly engaged in war work, such 



320 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTEES 

as those in the Signal Corps, and for women connect- 
ed with the British auxiliary organizations, twenty- 
one for nurses in base hospitals and eighteen for 
French women working in munition factories, offices, 
stores and for the American army. The Y. W. C. A. 
gave much assistance also in the providing of emer- 
gency housing for women engaged in work for the 
war in this country, while its endeavors for the im- 
proving of morale and the inculcating of American 
ideals among foreign born and colored women and 
girls aided in rousing their patriotic spirit. It oper- 
ated War Service Industrial Clubs with cafeterias 
and recreation halls and a variety of entertainments 
and classes for study in centers of war industry 
where women were employed. 

A Woman's Division was instituted by the Young 
Men's Christian Association at the end of our first 
war year and during the next seven months its work 
grew to important proportions. Carefully chosen for 
the service, the women were given just before they 
sailed a week of intensive training for their duties 
on the other side. Instruction in hygiene taught them 
how to keep themselves fit under conditions that 
would call for all their strength; their knowledge 
of French was freshened; they had lectures on the 
kind of cooking needed for canteen work and talks 
on the geography, history, customs and character- 
istics of France, in order to give them a degree of 
sympathetic understanding of the people among 
whom they would have to work; they were encour- 
aged to practice any sort of special facility for the 
entertainment of groups of men which they might 
possess; and they were expected to be accomplished 
dancers before they were enlisted. On the other 



THE WORK OF WOMEN FOR THE WAR 321 

side they worked in canteens and were especially 
useful in the recreation centers described in ''Big- 
Brothering the Fighting Forces," of which twenty- 
six were organized in different parts of France. In 
these recreation camps, or ''leave areas," in the 
''Y" centers in Paris and other French cities, in 
canteens in camps and behind the front lines, the 
Red Triangle women made and poured coffee and 
chocolate and tea, distributed candy, cakes, gum, cig- 
arettes and tobacco, provided Christmas boxes, sang, 
danced, recited, played games and did whatever the 
moment demanded for the welfare and the entertain- 
ment of the American fighting men. The women 
practically created the service of the "leave areas," 
which was something entirely new in warfare. They 
went with the canteens to the front lines, advanced 
with the Army of Occupation through Luxemburg 
and Alsace, and settled down with it in Germany. 
They worked also with the American forces in Eng- 
land and Scotland, Russia and Italy. After the 
armistice, when many of the men secretaries of the 
Y. M. C. A. began to return to their neglected busi- 
ness in the United States, the women took over more 
and more of the canteen and other work. When 
hostilities ended, a thousand women were engaged in 
Red Triangle work overseas and so important was 
their service that in response to the call for them that 
number was doubled during the next three months, 
and the Association was then still recruiting, train- 
ing and sending them to France. 

Three organizations enlisted women as automobile 
drivers for war service,— the Motor and Ambulance 
Corps of the American Red Cross, the Motor Corps 
of America and the Motor Corps of the National 



322 THE NATION BEHIND THE PIGHTEES 

League for Woman's Service. Together they had 
an estimated membership of several thousand wo- 
men, most of whom were women of leisure who 
owned their own cars and were glad to give for the 
country's needs their own time and work and the 
service of their automobiles. Before being received 
in either of the organizations they had to undergo a 
course of intensive training averaging six weeks and 
including revolver shooting, first aid treatment, sur- 
gery clinics as a test and training for the nerves, 
clinics for the handling of the insane because men- 
tally unbalanced soldiers had to be transferred by 
ambulance from transport to hospital, military drill 
twice a week and a course in mechanics. A mem- 
ber of a woman's motor corps had to know how her 
car was built and be able to take it apart, if neces- 
sary, and put it together again and if it balked to 
discover what was the matter and apply the needed 
remedy. The Motor Corps women served both at 
home and overseas and they drove trucks, ambulances 
and cars. Their service was ready for any war or- 
ganization that needed them, their vehicles plied be- 
tween transports and hospitals, carried convalescent 
soldiers out for an airing, were on duty at canton- 
ments and camps and answered many similar calls. 
Their rules demanded at least nine hours per day 
on duty, but actual service often stretched to fif- 
teen or twenty hours out of the twenty-four. 

The National League for Woman's Service, by 
which one of these corps was recruited and directed, 
was organized for patriotic purposes two months be- 
fore America entered the war and upon that event 
was ready to begin active work in the coordinating 
of women's organizations and the enlisting and di- 



THE "WORK OF WOMEN FOR THE WAR 323 

reeling of all manner of women's resources and abili- 
ties that would aid the nation in the prosecution of 
the war. Its organization spread into almost every 
state of the Union and numbered 300,000 members. 
Its Motor Corps Service, which was recognized by the 
Surgeon General of the Army, had throughout the 
country seventy-eight chapters with a membership of 
about five hundred women car owners. Its social and 
welfare division established many soldiers' and sail- 
ors' club rooms and club houses, with reading and 
lounging rooms, billiard and pool tables, dances and 
entertainments, and classes in French and English. 
It also conducted classes for the instruction of wo- 
men in occupational therapy and handicraft who 
worked in hospitals and camps, recruited and trained 
women to serve as nurses' aids, and cooperated with 
the War Camp Community Service in many ways. 
Its members worked in canteens and clubs, gave their 
services in workrooms where clothing and supplies 
were made for hospitals and for soldiers and sailors, 
distributed the thousands upon thousands of flower 
donations made to hospitals by florists, worked with 
the Food Administration by distributing food 
pledges, establishing emergency and community 
kitchens and providing experts in home economics 
who gave instruction in food .conservation. The 
League collected books, magazines, games and to- 
bacco for the fighting forces, recruited a Woman's 
Reserve Camouflage Corps which gave some impor- 
tant services, enlisted the aid of authors and artists 
for the publicity needs of one or another department 
of the Government, and served, in general, as a means 
of mustering and directing the resources and abilities 
of women for war work. 



324 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTEBS 

Women's clubs of every sort all over the country 
had their war service committees, or mobilized all 
their members for that purpose, and these were close- 
ly linked together through their federations so that 
their work, which included assistance for every war 
making and war assisting agency of Government or 
people, could be done without overlapping or waste. 
Women's colleges and women students in co-educa- 
tional institutions also took up war work, as described 
in ''Feeding the Nations." As the men students of 
the colleges mobilized for training for the war in 
the Students' Army Training Corps, the women stu- 
dents mobilized for work to uphold the war. The 
Association of Collegiate Alumnse, with membership 
spread all through the Union, organized itself for war 
effort with especial reference to the task of bringing 
home to people everywhere the fundamental issues 
involved in the war, the necessity of fighting it 
through to a completely victorious conclusion and the 
dangers that would lurk in a premature peace. The 
Association cooperated with the Committee on Pub- 
lic Information, held college women's rallies, formed 
local speakers' bureaus, helped to procure trained 
workers for various forms of national service, set on 
foot a movement to provide in colleges preparatory 
nursing courses for women, and worked with and for 
all of the war sustaining agencies of the Government. 

Cooperating with all these and with the many 
other women's organizations for war effort and com- 
prehending in its nation-wide scope all the women 
of the country was the Woman's Committee of the 
Council of National Defense, which interlocked in ef- 
fective team-work all organizations of women and, 
reaching out to almost every community in the land, 



THE WORK OF WOMEN FOR THE WAR 325 

inspired those outside such organizations to definite, 
regular, organized effort for war service especially 
fitted for women's hands. It served solely among 
women, just as the Council of National Defense, of 
which it was a part, joined in ^eam-work all war 
sustaining and war producing agencies and organ- 
ized the communities, as told in ^ ' Organizing the Na- 
tion." 

The Woman's Committee was created in April, 
1917, and very soon had its divisions organized in 
each of the forty-eight states and also in Alaska, 
Hawaii, Porto Rico and the District of Columbia. 
Upon each State Committee were represented both 
the state-wide women's organizations and the women 
not connected with any organization, and these com- 
mittees organized the states into small units. Over 
15,000 of these subordinate units had been formed 
and were at work by mid-summer of 1918, including 
2,500 counties and 8,500 cities, towns and town- 
ships and, in addition, many thousand smaller units, 
such as school districts, wards, precincts, city blocks. 
These small units brought the organization into di- 
rect touch with women everywhere and enlisted them 
as individuals and as groups in the great army of 
patriotic women who were giving everything in their 
power for the prosecution of the war. 

In half or more of the states women registered for 
war work, stating the amount of time they could give, 
the special service for which they were fitted and 
the kinds of work they could do. When the request 
came for volunteers for any particular service, or 
when it became known that there was some new need 
for woman's assistance, the leader of each unit knew 
just where to look for the necessary help. The 



326 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

"Woman's Committee, from its central offices in Wash- 
ington to the members of local units in city block or 
country district, worked with the Food Administra- 
tion for the increased production and the conserra- 
tion of food and, similarly, gave their help to the 
conservation program of the Fuel Administration. So 
also, they cooperated with the War Camp Community 
Service and the Training Camp Commissions, with 
the Liberty Loan and War Savings Stamps cam- 
paigns, aided in the campaign to recruit nurses and 
in that to secure workers for the ship yards, and 
helped to find trained women workers who were need- 
ed at once by the rapidly expanding departments and 
the new boards and commissions at Washington. 

The Woman's Committee endeavored always, while 
aiding in the work of the war agencies, to preserve 
and improve the peace time standards and values of 
life. And therefore not a little of its work was along 
the lines of maintaining the health and protecting 
the welfare of women and children. It had a de- 
partment of Child Welfare and carried on a vigorous 
campaign to further these aims while it endeavored 
to promote public sentiment in favor of proper liv- 
ing and working conditions for women in industry. 

The Woman's Committee of the Council of Na- 
tional Defense, in short, mobilized in one great, en- 
thusiastic, democratic army the women of all the 
land, rich and poor, ignorant and cultured, of many 
races, of foreign birth and of American ancestry, and 
by organization enabled them to use their time, abil- 
ity and effort in the way and at the time when they 
would be of best service. 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

FIGHTING THE UNDERGROUND ENEMY 

FOR years before it plunged the world into war 
the German Government, as in every country 
in which it could obtain the necessary foothold, had 
been applying in the United States its policy of 
"peaceful penetration." Toward that end it had 
endeavored by many apparently innocent means to 
hold the loyalty of American citizens or residents of 
German birth or extraction, to create a dominant 
body of sentiment in favor of anything and every- 
thing German, and to secure the open or concealed 
control of vast quantities of business through which 
it could operate for the furtherance of German in- 
terests, political, industrial, financial or cultural. 
German methods and ideals accepted in schools and 
colleges; German departments in universities that 
were centers of influence for the spreading of ad- 
miration of everything German ; in some regions Ger- 
manized public schools; a country-wide net-work of 
German societies and associations through which love 
and loyalty for the "fatherland" were kept alive; 
millions of dollars of German money invested in 
American business, frequently under disguised own- 
ership ; German and Austro-Hungarian diplomats us- 
ing their offices and privileges for the promotion of 
all manner of intrigue against the interests of the 

327 



328 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

country; plots for the control of industry, the de- 
struction of property, the inciting of sedition, the 
hatching of conspiracies, the rousing of enmity 
against us in friendly nations — these were some of 
the things the American people found had been go- 
ing on under their very noses, many of which they 
had thoughtlessly aided, when the shock of war 
opened their eyes to the character and the methods 
of the enemy who, for the sake of civilization, had to 
be rendered innocuous. It was an enemy who had 
not only to be fought on the open battlefield but 
foiled in all the underground tricks and activities 
in which he was exceptionally expert and incessantly 
busy. 

Before our entrance into the war Germany had 
used her own and the Austro-Hungarian embassies 
and her well organized spy system to carry on oper- 
ations against England and France, her diplomatic 
representatives and her agents secretly concocting 
and directing activities that would interfere with the 
efficiency of the Entente Allies and might also be 
depended upon to create friction and possibly even 
war between them and the United States. After the 
two ambassadors and their staffs had been sent home 
because of these machinations and the United States 
had declared war, there still remained the spy sys- 
tem, which had been greatly increased and strength- 
ened during the first years of the war. Huge sums 
of money financed it and it was directed and carried 
on by some of the most experienced agents of the 
German Foreign Office. To aid them Germany had 
sent to this country many professional men, scien- 
tists and others with instructions to advance Ger- 
man interests and to assist in the carrying on of her 



FIGHTING THE UNDERGROUND ENEMY 329 

■QndergroTind activities in every possible way. The 
Intelligence Division of the United States War De- 
partment estimated that Germany maintained in this 
country, before and after our entrance into the war, 
an immense, secretly operating force of between 200,- 
000 and 300,000 paid and volunteer workers. There 
was also the wide-spreading net-work of business 
firms, apparently innocent, but really a cover and 
medium for enemy machinations. 

Emissaries to blow up bridges and railroads and 
do other damage were sent into Canada. Malcontents 
from Ireland and India were sought out and financed 
and aided in the laying of plots to create dissatisfac- 
tion, riots and, if possible, revolution in their home 
countries. A French traitor was brought to the 
United States and furnished with money for setting 
on foot a traitorous scheme in France. Much inge- 
nuity was expanded in the endeavor to create fric- 
tion between this country and Japan. In Mexico Ger- 
many diligently spread propaganda to influence the 
people and government of that country against the 
United States and aided and financed terroristic 
movements and activities whose purpose was to em- 
broil the two nations in war. 

Germany's underground activities in the United 
States, some of them dating before our entrance into 
the war, some of them carried into the period of our 
war participation, and others not begun until after 
we became a belligerent, included many and varied 
schemes to prevent this country from exercising its 
rights under international law, to interfere with its 
effective prosecution of the war and to undermine 
its political and trade relations with other countries. 
An effort was made to gain control of airplane build- 



330 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

ing. There was an attempt to secure a similar hold 
upon the munitions industry, by maneuvering it 
into the hands of German capital so camouflaged 
that its character would not be recognized. A par- 
ticularly well organized and cunningly concealed 
scheme, directed and financed in the United States, 
was set on foot to buy up and hoard wool and woolen 
and other textiles, in both North and South Amer- 
ica, needed for the clothing of our own and our asso- 
ciates' armies. 

Plots were laid and feverishly pushed forward 
for blowing up ships bearing troops or war cargoes 
across the Atlantic and for wrecking munition plants 
and other war industries. German agents sent 
throughout the Southern states did their best to in- 
cite race riots among the negroes and to instigate 
a race war, working among them in their homes and 
churches and following them into cotton fields and 
mills and even into the army camps. Much effort 
and ingenuity were expended in the attempt to 
cause dissatiEfc^Lction and strikes among the workers 
in war industries and strife among those of different 
nationalities. 

Propaganda, both open and concealed, was carried 
on by innumerable methods in the hope of influencing 
sentiment against the war, in favor of Germany, 
or against our war associates. For this purpose 
there were used moving pictures, the pastors of Ger- 
man churches, the German language press, the news- 
papers of other languages, writers in German pay 
who contributed articles and correspondence to 
American newspapers and magazines, German owned 
or controlled periodicals whose directing influence 
was well concealed, and a great number of societies 



FIGHTING THE UNDERGROUND ENEMY 331 

having for their ostensible purpose the aiding of the 
aims of labor, or of pacifist sentiment, or of social- 
ism. 

The United States Department of Justice dis- 
covered, in the course of its investigations, that the 
German Government had placed in this country for 
the use of these various underground activities over 
$27,000,000, of which $7,500,000 had been spent in 
propaganda. 

For measuring forces with an enemy of this sort 
the United States, when it entered the war, was 
inadequately equipped with laws. A friendly peo- 
ple, believing in square and open dealing between 
nations as between individuals and trusting those to 
whom it had given citizenship and business and pro- 
fessional hospitality, as it would expect to be trusted 
in another land, had never thought it necessary to 
enact such laws as this emergency demanded. The 
only weapon of consequence which the Government 
had ready for conflict with the underground enemy 
was a statute which had been in force more than 
a hundred years permitting the arrest and intern- 
ment by executive order of an alien enemy believed 
to be a menace to the public safety. Advantage was 
talien of this at once and some of the most danger- 
ous agents of Germany were soon under guard and 
innocuous for the duration of the war. This intern- 
ment statute was a powerful weapon in putting down 
enemy activities, while the severity with which it 
was enforced from the very beginning was effective in 
discouraging the continued hatching of plots. 

An espionage law enacted two months after our 
declaration of war and strengthened later on and 
a sabotage bill dealing with injury to property gave 



332 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

the needed means for dealing with a difficulty the 
nation had never before encountered. The espion- 
age act was effective against organized or deliberate 
enemy or disloyal propaganda, but it was not in- 
tended to curtail the rights of free speech or of a free 
press and in its enforcement the courts made every 
effort to protect these rights as the basis of our politi- 
cal institutions. In the emotional tensity of the 
time it was inevitable that there should be bitter 
charges of excessive leniency on one side and, on the 
other, of unnecessary severity from those who feared 
the undermining of our principles of freedom. But 
in the end there were few who did not recognize 
that substantial justice had been meted out in most 
of the many cases. German alien enemies were re- 
quired to register and 480,000 men and women were 
thus listed. A system of permits governed their 
movements and debarred them, without special per- 
mission, from the District of Columbia and from 
specified zones surrounding fortifications, docks, 
piers, wharves, warehouses, and other places impor- 
tant for war purposes. They were forbidden also 
to enter or leave the United States. 

Much more lenient treatment was given to the sub- 
jects of Austro-Hungary, upon whom the only restric- 
tion was that of not leaving the country, although 
they were also subject to arrest and internment if 
guilty of dangerous activities. They proved to be 
worthy of the trust placed in them, for, although 
there were seven or eight times as many of these 
enemy aliens as of those of German citizenship, they 
gave little trouble of any sort, their labor helped 
importantly in much of our war production and 



FIGHTING THE UNDEEGEOUND ENEMY 333 

throughout the war they were quiet, industrious and 
law-abiding. 

Germany's spies and agents were of several na- 
tionalities and in order to keep an effective watch 
upon their movements a stringent passport system 
was instituted which made impossible the departure 
from this country of any one whose purpose was not 
clear and proper. Private persons were forbidden 
to carry mail out of or into the country, as a means 
of preventing enemy agents from sending reports by 
others. Officers and crews of neutral ships were not 
allowed to land at United States ports without per- 
mits from the Department of State. A large force 
of picked and trained men, numbering several hun- 
dreds, scrutinized every ship coming into or going 
out of the important ports, her cargo and her pas- 
sengers, to make sure that no enemy agent was among 
them or material of any sort intended for the enemy 
secreted in hold, or quarters, or cabins. 

Supplementing the six secret service agencies of 
the Government, all of which were immediately and 
very greatly increased to enforce these provisions 
and deal with enemy activities, there sprang into life, 
almost over-night, the American Protective League. 
An organization of citizen volunteers, it was a unique 
development of the situation and in spirit and meth- 
ods thoroughly characteristic of the American peo- 
ple. The League was born out of a realization of the 
danger the country faced, overrun as it was with 
enemy agents directed by some of the most skillful 
intriguers and spy captains that a nation specializing 
in spying and intrigue had been able to train, and 
out of the loyal wish to serve. 

The American Protective League, which had its 



334 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTEES 

beginning almost simultaneously with our declara- 
tion of war, was a volunteer auxiliary of the De- 
partment of Justice. Its organizer, a private citizen 
who saw the necessity of such service and the pos- 
sibility of securing the effective cooperation of se- 
lected persons everywhere, had it in operation with- 
in a few weeks, with several thousand members. It 
grew rapidly and within a year had 250,000 members 
working for it in their own communities. The or- 
ganization was established in every state in the 
Union, the country being cut up into divisions, each 
under a chief, and each division into districts with 
a captain in command of each one, while each cap- 
tain recruited his own working squads and put them 
under lieutenants. This organization by territory 
was reenforced by another whose divisions were along 
the lines of important industries, trades and profes- 
sions, the two bureaus working constantly in coopera- 
tion. In the membership of the League was repre- 
sented every section and phase of American life — 
college professors and day laborers, bank presidents 
and mechanics, journalists, lawyers, janitors, min- 
isters, carpenters, judges. The very great value of 
its service was due to this variety and to the intelli- 
gence and character of its membership, for it was 
able to penetrate into all circles, to be on the watch 
everywhere in city, town and country and to follow 
a suspect through the most devious of wanderings. 
It investigated pro-German propaganda of every 
sort, sabotage cases, suspected spies and their activi- 
ties, seditious speeches and printed matter, efforts 
to evade the selective service act, lying reports cir- 
culated by the ''whispering propaganda" method 



FIGHTING THE UNDERGROUND ENEMY 335 

about American organizations or individuals, and 
suspected treasonable conspiracies. 

The members of the League, undertaking its work 
in addition to the duties of their regular occupa- 
tions, served without pay and without rendering ex- 
pense accounts. It carried on 3,000,000 investiga- 
tions upon which it made reports, a great many re- 
sulting in the uncovering of serious disloyalties or 
enemy activities. So efficient was the organization 
that it won the warmest praise from the Attorney 
General of the United States, who declared that not 
only were its active services of very great value but 
that its passive effect was of equal importance, be- 
cause the knowledge that its eyes and ears were every- 
where had a most discouraging influence upon enemy 
and disloyal intentions. 

Under the Trading with the Enemy Act, passed 
early in our war progress, an Alien Property Cus- 
todian took charge of properties and businesses be- 
longing to enemy aliens in this country or operated 
for the benefit of enemy subjects elsewhere. The in- 
vestigations which uncovered these business opera- 
tions, many of them deeply and cleverly concealed, re- 
vealed startling facts as to the extent to which Ger- 
man subjects had gained commercial and industrial 
footholds in the United States, the methods which 
they had used and the purposes to which they had 
applied their resources and their knowledge of the 
nation's business and industrial life. More than 
thirty thousand cases of enemy owned business were 
handled by the Custodian, while enemy owned stock, 
ranging in the several cases from fifteen to one hun- 
dred per cent of the total, was found in nearly three 
hundred corporations. He seized enemy owned prop- 



336 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

erty in the first year of his work to the value of more 
than $700,000,000, the businesses in which it was 
engaged running the whole gamut of American in- 
dustry in mining, manufacturing, buying and selling. 
Frequently the enemy ownership was so cleverly and 
persistently concealed that months of investigation 
were necessary to uncover the truth. A great many 
of these German owned industrial establishments 
were used as spy centers and were filled with the 
agents of Germany plotting for political and indus- 
trial domination. In order to protect the country in 
the future and prevent a repetition of this attempt to 
conceal a knife meant for her heart, the Alien Prop- 
erty Custodian was authorized by Congress to sell 
to American citizens all enemy owned businesses, the 
proceeds to be deposited in the United States Treas- 
ury to await decision concerning it by the Peace Con- 
gress which should settle the problems growing out 
of the war. 

Not only did the volunteer organization of the 
American Protective League undertake to uncover 
and stop enemy and disloyal activities, but a large 
percentage of the American people individually en- 
deavored to aid the authorities in the same way. So 
intense was the general indignation against Germany 
and the Germans because of their insidious methods 
and the extent to which they had abused the friendly 
attitude of America and so high was the spirit of 
loyalty that young and old, rich and poor, were every- 
where on the watch for signs of disloyal sentiment. 
Sometimes this eagerness overstepped common sense 
and degenerated into unthinking persecution of peo- 
ple of German birth or extraction who were good and 
loyal citizens. It resulted also in the circulation of 



FIGHTING THE UNDERGROUND ENEMY 337 

many wild rumors of spy activity without basis of 
truth. But it also had undoubted good result in the 
discouraging of the underground activities of the 
enemy. 

Germany expected confidently that her well or- 
ganized and richly provided spy service, her exten- 
sive propaganda and her hold upon business would 
enable her to undermine and palsy America's war 
effort. But all her careful preparations and the 
huge sums of money she expended profited her 
scarcely at all. The great majority of American citi- 
zens of German blood or birth proved to be loyal to 
the United States. The swift hand of justice at 
once grasped and put under guard so many of Ger- 
many's agents that the rest were unwilling to run 
the risk of continued activity. Over 6,000 enemy 
aliens were arrested under warrants and 4,000 were 
interned in army detention camps for the period of 
the war. Systematia-. dislpyaLpjopaganda failed so 
completely to produce its desired results, was every- 
where so frowned upon and was so likely to be 
fraught with danger for those behind it that it 
dwindled rapidly. By the end of our first year of 
war projGerman and anti- American . propagandists 
had realized the futility of their attempts. 

Notwithstanding all the preparations and efforts 
of the enemy to breed disloyalty and create disorder 
and lawlessness and our own lack at first of legal 
machinery with which to meet the situation, Ger- 
many's underground operations were squarely met 
and wholly defeated and the country was never more 
quiet and law-abiding than it was during all the 
period of the war. 



CHAPTER XXXV 

AT THE HEART OF THE NATION 

IN the memory of those who knew it during the 
war Washington will ever stand out as an epitome 
of the titanic achievements of the country. There 
beat the heart of the nation and there could be felt, 
as nowhere else, its mighty and determined pulses. 
There was the source of every great activity and 
there, with the burning intensity of sunbeams 
focused through a lens, the spirit of the people was 
making itself manifest. 

The war found the capital of the United States, 
just as it had been for many years, quiet and leisure- 
ly, aloof from business and industry, spacious and 
restful and lovely. And the war transformed it with 
lightning speed into a busy hive of war making in- 
dustry, crammed with people, humming with prodi- 
gious labors, striving mightily to achieve what seemed 
the impossible in a hundred different ways at the 
same time. 

The vast expansion in every war making or war 
administration agency of the Government and the 
creation of new agencies that began at once had, 
of course, their source and direction in Washington 
and there their machinery had to be housed and 
operated. First to outgrow its former allocation of 
space in the huge State, War and Navy Building, 

338 



AT THE HEART OF THE NATION 339 

ample for the peace time needs of all three Depart- 
ments, was the War Department. As the expansion 
in each of its divisions increased from day to day, 
it overflowed into other buildings, and one immense 
structure after another, nearly a dozen in all, was 
rushed to completion to house its activities. The 
Navy Department and the Treasury Department 
each had its own difficulties, although in neither was 
the expansion so great as in that of War. In the 
great Treasury building entrances were closed and 
corridors screened to make more desk room and 
buildings and office space were leased elsewhere to 
accommodate the many thousands of new employees 
who were needed for the vast amount of expert and 
clerical work suddenly made necessary in connection 
with the income tax, the War Risk Insurance, the 
Liberty Loan bonds, the War Stamps. The War Risk 
Insurance Bureau, newly created, alone required 17,- 
000 workers. The new agencies that were being 
formed, each one of them growing like a Jonah's 
gourd — such as the Food Administration, the Fuel 
Administration, the Council of National Defense, the 
War Trade Board, the War Industries Board, — each 
had to be put under a roof big enough for its con- 
stantly expanding forces. 

An enormous building program was instituted al- 
most overnight, planned and executed in an amaz- 
ingly short time. And in the meantime these new, or 
expanding, war activities had to be housed anywhere 
that a vacant building or a few rooms could be found. 
Perhaps two or three old dwellings, hastily remodeled 
inside for office purposes, were thrown together, or 
a vacant theater was taken over, or rooms were 
rented in office buildings. The Council of National 



340 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

Defense began its work in three rooms in an office 
building and a year later it was overflowing into two 
other buildings from a huge structure of its own 
containing four hundred rooms which had been built 
from foundation to its last electric light fixture in 
seven weeks. The Food Administration grew within 
six months from two rooms and three people to an 
enormous organization whose headquarters in Wash- 
ington filled a structure of nearly a thousand rooms, 
each room containing from two to ten people, and 
within the next year it had overflowed into and filled 
another building of almost equal size. The "War 
Trade Building covered an entire block of space and 
in it were 2,200 employees while its mail, handled by 
its own service, numbered from 4,000 to 5,000 pieces 
daily. And the histories of the other war agencies 
are repetitions of these. 

Altogether there were built a score of these huge 
buildings for various war work purposes. If massed 
together they would have covered sixty acres. Speed 
and economy were the two essentials in their con- 
struction and each of them grew with startling rapid- 
ity. Three months was a long time for the erection 
of any one of them. Seven or eight or ten weeks 
was the more usual time to elapse from the moment 
work was begun until the building was ready for 
occupancy, equipped with steam heating, electric 
lighting and sprinkler systems, aero fire alarm sig- 
nals or fire towers, and telephone systems comprising 
in each one from four hundred to a thousand instru- 
ments. Some of the buildings were two and some 
three stories high. Most of them were built of 
metal lath finished on the outside with stucco and 
on the inside with wall board, but in the enormous 




View from Washington Monument, August, 1917 




Same View One Year Later, Showing War Buildings 
Constructed in the Meantime 



AT THE HEART OF THE NATION 341 

War and Navy buildings the materials were steel and 
concrete. 

Measuring approximately from four to six hun- 
dred feet by from two to four hundred, each of these 
great structures covered from three to five acres of 
ground space, while its floor space, if two stories 
high, was between 300,000 and 400,000 square feet, 
but from eight to fifteen acres if higher. Its long 
corridors, stretching out in separate wings in parallel 
lines from the front section, or '^head house," with 
rows of offices upon each side, if set end to end would 
have measured a mile, a mile and a half, three miles, 
in length. Office boys had to use roller skates up 
and down these hallways in order to economize time. 
Last and most enormous of these structures were the 
huge Army and Navy buildings, standing side by 
side, of steel and concrete, three stories high, con- 
taining forty-three acres of floor space and affording 
accommodations for 10,000 employees. The Navy 
Department building has a front section or "head 
house" 860 feet long with nine wings extending from 
it each 500 feet long and 60 feet wide, while the 
"head house" of the War Department building is 
784 feet long and its eight wings of similar size. 
The contract for these two buildings was let at the 
end of February, 1918, and by the middle of the fol- 
lowing August the occupants had begun to move in 
and six weeks later their offices were fully occupied. 
The cost of the entire building program for the hous- 
ing of war activities at the capital was $15,000,000. 

The work to be done required as much expansion 
in personnel as in buildings. From all over the coun- 
try people went to Washington to put their hands, 
their heads, their shoulders, to the rushing forward 



342 THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS 

of the Government's war pro-am. There was some- 
thing almost magical in the suddenness of their ap- 
pearance and the steadiness with which this stream 
of humanity poured into the capital. From East 
and West and North and South came these thousands 
of men and women, from the seaboards and the moun- 
tains, from the middle plains and valleys — ^business 
men, captains of industry, lawyers, physicians, bank- 
ers, clergymen, college professors, magazine editors, 
scientific and technical experts, artists, authors, jour- 
nalists, librarians, welfare workers, stenographers, 
secretaries, clerks, and each and every one of them 
found all that his or her hands could do. A great 
many of them, more than will ever be known, gave 
their services and the rest received salaries that were 
hardly more than sufficient, as prices were in war- 
time Washington, to cover their expenses. They were 
representative Americans, the cream of America in 
ability, training, character, patriotism and devotion 
to democratic ideals, and to see them at their work, 
to come into touch with their enthusiasm, their eager- 
ness to render service, their teeming ideas, their re- 
sourcefulness, their efficiency, energy and determi- 
nation and to witness the effective running and vast 
achievements of the huge organizations they were 
inspiring and directing was to watch the steady, sure 
beating of the very heart of the nation. 

In April, 1917, Washington had a population of 
360,000, with scant facilities for receiving and car- 
ing for the army of workers that almost at once be- 
gan to stream into it. At the end of the next seven 
months a careful census that did not include tran- 
sients nor men in camps within the city showed that 
50,000 people had been added to the population. And 



AT THE HEART OF THE NATION 343 

they were still coming in answer to the need of de- 
partments and boards and commissions for more, and 
more, and ever more workers to carry on every phase 
of the planning, directing and speeding of the war. 
The War Department alone had 25,000 civilians in its 
employ. Each of the other great war agencies was 
using two, three, five or six thousand men and women, 
and each of them was still expanding. At the end of 
the first year of war the population of Washington 
had been increased by 90,000, and probably twenty 
or thirty thousand more were added before the sign- 
ing of the armistice. Thus the capital's population 
was increased during the year and a half by about 
one-third of its initial size. And, altogether, the 
expansion in building and population during that 
brief time makes a story more sensational than that 
of any mining town which ever leaped suddenly into 
world-wide fame. 

This rapid increase in population led to serious 
housing problems and difficulties. House to house 
canvasses for the listing of available rooms, the seiz- 
ing of vacant buildings and such emergency meas- 
ures were not sufficient to provide even the most tem- 
porary and crowded of homes for all of the hundred 
thousand new residents. The problem could be met 
only by Government assistance and $10,000,000 was 
appropriated for the building of dormitories and 
apartments for the housing of the newcomers. Ex- 
perts on apartment house and residence hall con- 
struction, on women 's welfare work, on heating, light- 
ing and sanitation were consulted and buildings that 
would afford comfortable living accommodations for 
several thousand people were under construction when 
the armistice was signed. 



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